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Heritage Lottery Fund awards £7.7m to Hull's History Centre - 30/07/2007

It has been announced today that the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded £7.7m to support Hull's ambitious plans for a new history and archive centre - called the 'Hull History Centre'.

The grant is a tremendous boost to the joint venture between Hull City Council and the University of Hull and is the largest HLF grant ever awarded to the city. The second largest was the over £6m grant awarded to transform East Park in July 2002.

Councillor Kalvin Neal, Portfolio Holder for Quality of Life and Culture, said: "We are delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has confirmed such a large grant to the Hull History Centre. It demonstrates the Fund's confidence in Hull as a city that can deliver a major project of this kind. Once the History Centre is complete, it will bring all of the city's local history archival resources under one roof. The people of the city will be able to use it as a kind of 'one-stop history shop' to get answers to all their historical and genealogical questions.

"During the recent flooding crisis, attention has rightly focussed on the human cost of the disaster. However, it also underlined the critical importance of making provision for the city's heritage, similarly at risk from flood damage. The History Centre will store the archives and local studies material at first floor level, safely out of the way of any future rising water. I would also like to thank and congratulate the University of Hull, who are our partners in this ambitious and exciting project."

Professor David Drewry, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hull, said: "The University is delighted the HLF has confirmed its funding of this exciting project. The partnership with the city council has delivered an excellent result, and together we now look forward to commencing what will be an outstanding national, as well as regional, archival resource."

Carole Souter, Director of Heritage Lottery Fund added: "We are delighted to give the go ahead for this impressive project, and provide some really good news for Hull in the midst of the current flooding crisis. These wonderful collections will be brought together under one roof as a rich and important asset for the city. Nearly 7,000 metres of archives and no less than 110,000 published items of national importance, from poetry to local history , will be available to everyone, young and old ."

The Hull History Centre will provide a home for the City Archives, currently at 79 Lowgate, the Local Studies Library at present within the Central Library, and the University of Hull's Archives, now in the University library on the Cottingham Road campus. The centre will create a central point of access to an astonishing array of material. of national and international importance including the archives of civil rights groups, letters and speeches of William Wilberforce, and the papers of Hull poets Philip Larkin and Andrew Marvell.

There are also plans for reading rooms and exhibition space, a book shop and a café and outside for a small landscaped park.

The two-storey building will be sited in Mason Street in Hull city centre, close to the New Theatre. Construction is due to start in autumn 2007 and completion is expected in summer 2009.
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