To mark Humber Street Sesh today, writer and music fan Nick Quantrill gave us his favourite gigs at the world’s greatest venue.

Go on, admit it, you never knew Hull Libraries had a home delivery service. Well it does. It’s based at Bransholme Library, from where the marvellous Vanessa reports.

Our Ally-mai puts fabulous author Claire Linney under scrutiny in our quiz at The Big Malarkey.

It’s the one you see as you go over Anlaby Road flyover but it’s gone from place of worship to community asset, as our deconsecrated buildings correspondent Angus Young discovered.

Built in 1870, St Matthew’s Church in Anlaby Road still boasts the highest spire in Hull. However, it’s no longer a church.

Back in 2017 Hull-based social housing charity Giroscope bought the derelict building three years after it closed as a place of worship with the help of a European Regional Development Fund grant. The aim was to transform the empty Grade II-listed landmark into a thriving community enterprise centre and now that idea has become a reality. It currently provides some of the most stunning workspaces in Hull for small businesses as well as acting as a venue for events, exhibitions and live music.

Six small offices and a large meeting room have been created on new mezzanine floors on each side of the building. On the ground floor, there’s a new fully-equipped kitchen which will host Giroscope’s popular training courses for people looking to work in the catering sector. The facelift has also included the installation of a new floor complete with an underfloor heating system, rooftop solar panels and the restoration of the church’s distinctive First World War Memorial stained glass window.

Giroscope founder and coordinator Martin Newman said restoring the window had been an essential part of the wider project to breathe new life into the building. “Some of the glass was broken as a result of vandalism while the place was standing empty,” he said. “We wanted to retain as much of the church’s fabric as we could to reflect its history and its place in the local community so restoring the window was a bit of a priority.”

Originally installed in 1922 to commemorate men from the local community who fought and died in the war, it is now flanked by two memorial stones listing their names. Martin said; “There are 138 names on the memorials, many of whom were lost at sea. They really show how much the church has always been rooted in this community. During the build we’ve had lots of people coming in and telling us they got married here, attended funerals here or sang in the choir here. We want to make sure the community continues coming into the building, whether it’s to work or just to enjoy themselves.”

However, there’s one part of the former church which has remained largely untouched – the bell tower and the spire above it. “There is a really narrow set of steps up to the bells but we decided early on to leave them alone because we didn’t really know what condition they were in and didn’t want to risk one coming loose and crashing down on us,” said Martin.

He hopes the new chapter in the building’s history will also revive its profile, having been partially hidden by the construction of the adjacent Anlaby Road flyover in 1964. “The flyover created a real sense of dislocation for the neighbourhood around here. It’s been cut off from the rest of Anlaby Road so we’re hoping this place will help bring local people back together again.”

Angus Young

With the news that the pharmacy on the ground floor is to close, we sent Hull Tour Guide Paul Schofield to dig into the history of this unique building.

Lindsey in HU6 asked us this question at The Big Malarkey. So we only went and found out.

Many are thousands of years old, this one is eight. And looking the worse for wear, according to our prehistoric patterns correspondent Angus Young.

Tucked away in a park in Bransholme is a nod to the past. The Foredyke Green Nature Area off Kesteven Way was created in 2017 when a group of residents decided to transform a long-neglected piece of open land on their doorsteps. With support from the city council, they created a new public greenspace complete with sculptures, walking trails, a pond and outdoor artwork. On a new grassed area they also laid out a labyrinth.

Unlike mazes which are deliberately designed to make people lose their way within them, labyrinths feature a simple circular route to a central point without any disruptions or dead-ends. They have been around for more than 4,000 years and are traditionally associated with being used for spiritual purposes, offering a calm journey of meditation and personal exploration. Formed by cutting away the ground surface to create turf ridges and shallow trenches,  labyrinths are known to have existed in Britain since the late Medieval period.

As well as their religious heritage, folklore and surviving contemporary records suggest they were also once popular at village fairs and during  festivities. Many were located on ancient village greens or commons as well as churches. Based at these popular meeting places they would have been regularly used – perhaps even as a form of entertainment – with regular maintenance a necessity.

Sadly, it seems the Foredyke Green labyrinth could do with a bit of TLC if our recent visit there was anything to go by. Its path currently features more weeds than grass while a nearby information board giving details about the project is difficult to read thanks to graffiti. Even so, the labyrinth does offer the chance to take a gentle stroll while contemplating the meaning of life.

It was inspired by a now lost labyrinth which once existed in Marfleet when it was still a rural village rather than part of suburban East Hull. The Marfleet circle was also known as the City of Troy, a common name once given to labyrinths as a reference to various popular maze games brought to Italy after the fall of Troy.

Another modern-day labyrinth can be found at the Pickering Road Orchard in West Hull while the grounds at Bridlington Priory also feature a planted labyrinth. You can also see a replica of a Roman labyrinth at the Hull and East Riding Museum in High Street in Hull. It was originally found at Harpham near Drifield in 1904 and the replica is installed in a re-constructed bath-house in the Roman section of the museum.

Angus Young

Actor Matt Sutton returns to the end of Hessle Road and a significant location from his youth.

Our movie location hunter Joe Sargieson goes walkabout in the Old Town, looking for the exact spots that stood in for Olde London Town.

Former trawler skipper Eddie walks us through his best bits of Hessle Road past.