Think you know all about nail art? You don’t. You really don’t. Lucy is from the Feminine Urge art collective and she is a proper nail artist.

Amy, from the Hull Schools Library Service, takes us through past victors of the award.

Most railway stations across Yorkshire now feature a pub. Except Hull. Well, as our transport boozer correspondent Angus Young reports, all that look set to finally change.

Beer and architecture can be an irresistible combination. In Hull, we’ve got Ye Olde White Hart, the Punch Hotel and the Mission to name but three. But a new addition expected to be added to the list soon is likely to eclipse them all.

For years there’s been talk of the spectacular former booking hall in Paragon Station being turned into a pub. Now it’s actually about to happen with funding support approved and a planning application recently submitted to Hull City Council. Grants totalling £315,000 were announced nearly a year ago by the council from a government funding pot earmarked for city centre regeneration projects involving empty premises.

Last month Thornbridge Brewery lodged a planning application for the scheme. The company is seeking advertising consent for a number of proposed signs on new traditionally detailed hardwood entrance doors to the hall which will replace the existing modern glazed ones.

As well as the doors, the planning documents also include a layout of the hall once the bar is up and running. It shows fixed seating around the perimeter of the hall, a pizza kitchen, customer toilets,  outside pavement cafe seating overlooking Ferensway and a cellar. In addition, the central wooden ticket office – last used by WH Smith – will remain as it is.

All of the internal fixtures and fittings will also be fully removable to ensure the historic walls, floor and walls of the hall remain intact with no risk of potential damage. For lovers of decorative tiling and brickwork, that’s good news because the hall itself is one of the architectural wonders of Hull. It also seems long-standing issues with the building’s leaking glazed roof have also been fixed or at least are being addressed.

As for Thornbridge Brewery coming in as the operator? They seem like the perfect fit. Not only does the Derbyshire-based independent craft brewery company brew some decent stuff, it also runs some very interesting pubs. You might be familiar with the Market Cat in York, a three-storey venue on the corner of Shambles Market, or The Banker’s Cat in Leeds, a traditional pub sat inside a former city centre bank. Then there’s The Fargate in Sheffield (another former bank now with its own pizza kitchen) and The Colmore in Birmingham, an opulent throwback designed in the style of a traditional New York bar. The brewery also has a pub in London – The Wold Swan in Holborn – which features a range of cask ales including beers from the Thornbridge range along with guest beers from other craft brewers.

Each venue has a dash of style and elegance about them – another good sign that we are in for something special in the old booking hall. And if you’re really into the whole craft beer-making process, Thornbridge also operates tours of its brewery in Bakewell where there is also a tap room and shop.

As yet, there’s no opening date for the booking hall bar or even a confirmed name but once the planning process is completed then it should be all systems go. There’s also the important matter of 15 jobs being created in the development. Overall, it’s a project which seems to have captured the imagination of folk in Hull before it’s even started.

We can’t wait to sample the finished product in such grand surroundings.

Angus Young

Actor Emily Head – soon to be seen in Middle Child’s new play Isabelle – runs through some of her current favourite things.

Brit School graduate Jessika Mae Martin is a big fan of Mr Weller and his mod pals. As this film will attest.

A fascinating lesson in the elaborate clothing worn by the trawlermen of Hull as Burnsy talks to Hessle Road fashion expert Claire Day.

The election results this week leave Hull with no-one in overall charge. What exactly does that mean and what next? Answers by our vintage election correspondent Angus Young.

There has been political stability at Hull City Council for the best part of two decades. Over the years Labour and the Liberal Democrats have run the council at different times by establishing clear working majorities in elections. However, that’s all changed after the results in Thursday’s contest. Not only is there no longer a single party with an overall majority but the familiar two-party scenario at the Guildhall now features three.

The election has left the Liberal Democrats with 26 seats. Labour has 16 and newcomers Reform UK has ten. To complicate matters, there are also five Independents.
The maths means the Lib Dems don’t have enough votes to thwart any potential mass vote against them by their opponents.

It’s all currently hypothetical, of course, but the reality of the situation will require a degree of political co-operation to guarantee that things get done and decisions are made.
That paves the way for a mutually beneficial agreement between at least two of the political groups. It won’t be a formal coalition. Instead, in the words of Donald Trump, expect some sort of big, beautiful deal.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that the Lib Dems and Labour have more in common than Reform UK who occupy a very different political universe.
So it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to envisage the traditional rivals across the council chamber deciding to bury the hatchet, albeit temporarily.

An unofficial pact between the groups could allow the Lib Dems to continue as the council’s main political administration in exchange for Labour nominations for key committee posts being supported when vacancies are filled at the council’s annual general meeting later this month. Don’t rule out a successful Labour nominee for the next Lord Mayor under this arrangement either.

Soft Labour support for the Lib Dems could involve a pause in hostilities over any major new Lib Dems policy that might emerge over the next 12 months.
Such a move would leave the new and inexperienced Reform UK group isolated and powerless. As the five Independents are all former Labour and Liberal Democrats, the new kids on the block are unlikely to win new friends among them either. 

There have been administrations with no overall majorities before at the Guildhall but they were many years ago and only a few councillors remain from those far off days.
All of which means today’s current crop of politicians on the city council face a steep learning curve when it comes to making local democracy work.

Angus Young

A garden? For everyone to use? In deepest Bransholme? Our intrepid reporter Jade Wreathall digs deep into this horticultural wonder.

Strap in as Dr Robb Robinson of the University of Hull brings us a complex tale of history, industry, discovery and fizzy drinks.

Before hitting the top of the charts, Stan and Paul once fancied their chances running the city. Our pop politician correspondent Angus Young digs deeper.

Voters in Hull go to the polls tomorrow, when one-third of the seats on the city council are up for grabs. This rather odd voting system was introduced in 1984 when it was decided to move away from holding all-out elections. The idea was for a third of the council’s 60 seats to be subject to election every year during a typical four-year municipal cycle. In doing so, it created a so-called ‘fallow year’ when no city council elections took place. It also created space in the local political diary for the once-every-four-years Humberside County Council election to be staged.

The 1984 Hull council election was also notable for the presence of two unlikely candidates hoping to secure enough public support to become elected councillors. They both stood as members of the hitherto unknown Put Hull Back in Yorkshire Party, challenging the more established political norm in the city perhaps with one eye on the public’s lack of enthusiasm for the concept of a Humberside authority. Their names? Step forward Paul Heaton and Stan Cullimore.

At the time, the duo were barely known outside a tiny circle of struggling young musicians in Hull striving to make ends meet while dreaming of making it big one day. Most Saturdays you could find them busking in Whitefriargate. Five months before the Housemartins played their first gig as a four-piece at Hull University, Paul and Stan plunged themselves into the world of local politics by standing as election candidates.

Previewing the contest, the Hull Daily Mail’s municipal correspondent Christopher Hansworth appears to have been blissfully unaware of who they were or how serious they might have been about embarking on a political career. Weighing up what was likely to be a closely-fought contest between the main parties in the city’s Beverley ward, he wrote: “Voting could be thrown off balance though, with the Put Hull Back in Yorkshire candidate taking some of the votes”.

Paul was the PHBIY candidate in question. In an accompanying ward-by-ward list of all those standing, he is described as “A 21-year-old member of the Lambert Street Residents’ Association.” Meanwhile, Stan was standing in the neighbouring Newland ward under his real Christian name of Ian. His profile simply said: “Lives in Grafton Street, Newland Avenue.”

Polling day duly came and voters decided to give the music world a massive boost by keeping Paul and Stan as far away from the Guildhall as possible. In Beverley ward, Paul amassed a grand total of 35 votes. Contrary to Hansford’s prediction, his support didn’t really make much difference to the overall result as winning Liberal SDP Alliance candidate John Bryant romped home with a clear 378-vote majority after securing 1,971 votes.

Happily, the election results meant any ambitions of a life spent chewing over planning applications or responding to residents’ concerns over pot holes had to be abandoned. Instead, they threw themselves into becoming The Fourth Best Band in Hull. The rest, as they say, is history.

Stan fared marginally better by persuading 52 voters in Newland ward to put an X next to his name on the ballot paper. Most were almost certainly his musical mates living nearby. However, he still finished a very distant fourth in a four-horse race won by Conservative John Fareham, whose council career would ultimately stretch until 2022.

When the dust had settled and the numbers were crunched, it was revealed that Paul and Stan’s party won a whopping 0.1 per cent share of the overall vote. As political earthquakes go, it was barely a ripple on the pond and their short-lived party quickly vanished.

Angus Young