A Timeline of Hull

By Tim Lambert

c. 1193 About this time monks found a port where wool from their estates can be exported. It was called Wyke on Hull.

1279 Hull is granted the right to hold a market and a fair

c. 1285 The Church of the Holy Trinity is built

1293 The king acquires Hull. It is renamed Kingston on Hull.

c. 1300 A mint is established in Hull

1331 Hull is given a charter (a document granting the people certain rights)

1349 The Black Death devastates the population

c. 1365 A weigh house where bales of wool are weighed is built

1536 The Pilgrimage of Grace. The rebels enter Hull.

1537 Plague strikes Hull

1541 Henry VIII improves the town’s defences

1575-75 Plague strikes Hull again

1602-04 Plague strikes Hull again

1637 Another outbreak of plague in Hull

1642 King Charles I is refused entry to Hull. The royalist lay siege to Hull but fail to capture it.

1643 The Royalists besiege Hull again but again they fail to capture it

1700 The population of Hull is about 7,500

1743 Hull has its first theatre

1744 Maister House is built

1755 Improvement Commissioners are given powers to pave, clean and light the streets of Hull

1759 William Wilberforce is born in Hull

1778 A dock opens in Hull

1782 Hull Royal Infirmary opens

1800 The population of Hull is about 22,000. New houses are being built west of the town.

1809 Humber dock is built

1814 A dispensary where the poor can obtain free medicines opens in Hull

1822 Hull gains gas street light

1829 Junction Dock is built

1832 Cholera strikes Hull

1860 Beverley Park opens

1880 A telephone exchange opens in Hull

1881 Smallpox kills 689 people in Hull

1885 West Park opens

1893 An electricity generating station in Hull

1894 A Central Library opens in Hull

1897 Hull is made a city

1901 The population of Hull is 239,000

1915 A zeppelin raid kills 24 people in Hull

1927 Ferens Art Gallery opens

1935 Queens Gardens are laid out

World War II About 5,000 houses are destroyed by German bombing

1954 Hull University is founded

1975 Prospect Shopping Centre opens

1976 Streetlife Museum opens

1981 Humber Bridge opens

1990 Princes Quay Shopping Centre opens

1997 RED Art Gallery opens. Hull and East Riding Museum opens.

1999 The Arctic Corsair opens to the public

2001 The Deep opens in Hull

2007 St Stephens Shopping Centre opens in Hull