Hull and East Riding Museum

The Hull and East Riding Museum stands in Kingston upon Hull’s Old Town, occupying a former customs house built in 1856. The Italianate ashlar building was once a corn exchange before becoming the Museum of Commerce and Industry in 1925. After wartime damage it reopened in 1957 as an archaeology and transport museum. A major refurbishment in 1989 created the present museum and moved transport exhibits to a separate site. Further work between 1998 and 2003 moved the main entrance to the central courtyard. The museum is worth visiting for its life-size tableaux that bring regional history to life. A giant woolly mammoth greets visitors alongside interactive fossil displays. The Prehistoric Man gallery features tools collected by archaeologist John Robert Mortimer and the Roos Carr figures. The Boat Lab shows the 300 BC Hasholme Logboat and parts of the 2000 BC Ferriby Boats. The Roman World reconstruction includes actual mosaics from Rudston, Brantingham and Harpham. Inside, visitors find reconstructions of an Iron Age village, a Roman bath house with a life-sized bather, and a workshop complete with artefacts. The upper galleries cover Saxons, Vikings and medieval life with coins, weapons and everyday objects. A translation service is available at reception. The displays extend from prehistoric times to the English Civil War.