University of Hull

The University of Hull is a public research university in Kingston upon Hull, a port city in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Its main campus sits on a gentle slope near the city centre, with modern buildings grouped around older red-brick blocks. The Hull York Medical School shares the site, and a students’ union organises events and societies. A second campus occupies part of the former Humberside University buildings next door, now called the West Campus. The university also runs a Scarborough campus on Filey Road, set among coastal buildings. The university’s history begins in 1927 when University College Hull opened with 39 students in a single building now called the Venn Building. The college grew quickly, gaining its royal charter in 1954 and becoming the 14th university in England. In the 1950s and 1960s student numbers quadrupled under Vice-Chancellor Sir Brynmor Jones, who oversaw the construction of the Brynmor Jones Library. The university is recognised for inventing room-temperature liquid crystals in 1972, work that earned a Queen’s Award for Technological Achievement. Visitors walk past the Venn Building, the oldest surviving structure, and the Cohen Building, once the library. The Brynmor Jones Library now holds over a million books and offers quiet study spaces. The West Campus contains the Hull York Medical School and a relocated business school in prominent buildings. A ceremonial mace, given by the Lord Mayor in 1956, symbolises the university’s authority and the town-and-gown partnership. Nearby, the Hull History Centre in the city centre unites archives and local studies in one modern facility.