Where Can You See 26 Famous Artists In Hull City Centre?

Hiding in plain view, right before your eyes, are two dozen of the greatest artists to ever live. But where? Our art gallery and facades correspondent Angus Young finds out.

Tourists and residents alike are often encouraged to look up when visiting Hull city centre. Among the many historic buildings worth having a second glance at is the City Hall. However, while nearly every image of the Edwardian landmark features the front facade overlooking Queen Victoria Square, the rear end tends to get unfairly ignored. That’s a shame because once you gaze skywards an extraordinary collection of portraits of internationally-renowned artists comes into view.

Overall, 26 different painters are captured in a series of intricately-carved stonework cameos high up on the walls of what used to be Hull’s first municipal art gallery. They include Michaelangelo, Rembrandt, Turner, Van Dyck and Ruebens. Eight overlook Chariot Street while nine can be seen from Carr Lane and another nine from Paragon Street. Each portrait is flanked by two female figures with the name of each artist set in ornamental stone beneath.

Opened in 1910, the Victoria Art Gallery formed part of the new City Hall development which was conceived as an ambitious statement of civic pride to rival similar grand public halls in other cities. Both were designed by Joseph Henry Hirst, Hull’s first City Architect whose later work included  Beverley Road Baths, the Carnegie Library and Newland School for Girls.

Who decided on which artist should feature on the windowless walls of the gallery is not known. It could have been Hirst or sculptor and stonemason Gilbert Seale who won the contract to supply decorative stonework for the gallery’s exterior. Seale was one the country’s leading architectural stonemasons and had just finished a six-year commission completing plasterwork and numerous carvings at the London’s Central Criminal Court, otherwise known as the Old Bailey, before turning his attention to Hull.

Seale’s hand-written estimate for the work at the art gallery is held at the Hull History Centre archives and records the sum as £1,252 and ten shillings. Included in this was the price for each artists’ head set on a medallion – £12 and ten shillings. The History Centre’s archive also includes a single surviving architectural drawing of one of the proposed carved portraits and surrounding stonework detailing. Again, there’s no clue to establish whether the drawing is by Hirst or Seale.

Either way, once the stonework on the art gallery had been completed it seems there was a dispute over the final bill. In another letter held in the archive dated December 1909, Seale appears to challenge Hirst over Hull Corporation’s insistence on paying a lower price for his work. “I should like to point out that I purchased real-sized models of sculptured frieze and no.26 models of portrait heads for which I made no change, although it was understood that I should work from cartoons,” wrote Seale. “Under these circumstances and having regard to the very close price of my schedule, I trust you will allow the amount to pass as tendered.”

In a reply, Hirst points out that Seale had not been prepared to certify for any amount above £940, suggesting this figure was the limit the Corporation was prepared to pay. How the dispute was resolved is not known but Seale’s stunning stonework still survives today as a reminder of an era of architectural extravagance.

The gallery only lasted until 1927 when the collections of artworks it held was transferred to the new Ferens Art Gallery across the road. The space it occupied was renamed the Mortimer Suite in 1931 and has been used for exhibitions, meetings, events and live performance ever since.

Angus Young

Where Can You See Fossils In Hull City Centre?

Save the jokes, this is a serious geological article by our geology, biology and paleontology correspondent Angus Young about the prehistoric artefacts to be found littering the centre of Hull.

Fossils in sandstone in Hull city centre. (Shoes model’s own.)

Spare a thought for poor old fossils. First they die, then they hang around embedded in rock for millions of years not bothering anyone in particular and suddenly through no fault of their own they’re turned into fuel which could well end up destroying the planet. Before the climate change apocalypse happens, there’s probably just enough time to see some of the little blighters in their natural state the next time you pop into town.

I’m not talking about casting an eye over the geology section at the Hull and East Museum or taking a trip to Dinostar on Humber Street, although both are worth a visit. Instead, try spotting them hiding in plain sight dotted about the place on decorative stone used to clad numerous buildings you normally pass by without giving a second glance.

Before setting off, it’s probably best to heed the advice of Hull Geological Society members Ron Harrison and Mike Horne who published their own fossil-spotting guide back in 1991. “To attack shop fronts with a bottle of acid and a 2lb geological hammer in the name of science may be regarded as a little anti-social by the police!” The pair suggest taking a magnifying glass instead and warn that curious stares are to be expected from people in the street wondering why you’re examining a wall in microscopic detail.

While many of the shops and businesses have changed since they came up with a suggested two-hour stroll around the city centre, the various stones, fossils, crystals and unusual minerals they identify are still present and correct. The exception is the crystal-filled Larvikite granite used to clad the Burton building in Whitefriargate which was removed as part of the current restoration of the 1930s Art deco landmark. Happily, new Larvikite – known as ’Blue Pearl’ – is being installed after being sourced from the same quarry in Norway where the original was taken nearly a century ago..

Other exotic stones used to decorate buildings in the city centre include red granite from Finland on the Punch Hotel in Queen Victoria Square, Italian marble on Calla cafe bar in Whitefriargate and Italian travertine on McDonald’s in Jameson Street.

As for the fossils, they come in all shapes and tiny sizes. There’s a 350 million-year-old Horsetail in the sandstone steps of the Ferens Art Gallery. Back in the day, the plant formed the forests that dinosaurs lived in. The galley’s predominant Portland stone is also peppered with fossils from the Jurassic period.

Across Queen Victoria Square, the City Hall’s limestone pillars feature Burrow fossils, which are the remains of holes or tunnels once dug into the ground or seabed by animals looking for a place to live. The limestone statues on either side of the hall’s main entrance contain the shells of Bivalves, an aquatic mollusc which first appeared more than 500 years ago.

Probably the most striking display of fossils can be seen in the marble facade of Williamsons solicitors in Lowgate. While most of the marble has unfortunately been covered by advertising signs for the company, you can still see fossilised corals, Crinoids (distant relatives of starfish) and extinct sea sponges called Stromatoporoids within the green and grey-coloured stone.

If you fancy a tougher challenge, try finding a bullet-shaped squid-like Belemnite in one of the bricks of the former Job Centre in Market Place.

Finally, there are fossils galore inside and outside Hull Minster captured forever in a series of commemorative burial ledgers laid on the floor and made from Carboniferous Tournai marble originally sourced from Belgium.

Angus Young