Hull, or KINGSTON-ON-HULL, an important and flourishing English river-port, a parliamentary and municipal borough and county of itself, is situated in the East Riding of Yorkshire, in a low, level plain on the north bank of the Humber, here 2 miles wide, and here joined by the Hull, 42 miles ESE. of York and 173 N. of London. Of churches the most notable are Holy Trinity, Decorated and Perpendicular in style, with a central tower 140 feet high; and St Mary's Lowgate (1333), one-half of which was removed to make room for the mansion-house of Henry VIII., who stayed here in 1540. Both were restored by Sir G. G. Scott. All Saints' Church (1869), from designs of Street, is a good example of a brick church. The most important educational establishments are Hull and East Riding College; the Hull grammar-school (1486), where Andrew Marvell was educated; and Trinity House School (1716), where a large number of boys receive a nautical education; to which may be added the Literary and Philosophical Society, the Royal Institution, the Hull Church Institute, Young People's Christian Institution, Literary Club, College of Chemistry, Mechanics' Institute, the School of Art. An equestrian statue (1734) of William III. stands in the market-place, and in Junction Street is a column (1834) surmounted by a statue of Wilberforce, who was a native, as also was Mason the poet. Among many other benevolent establishments, the Trinity House, instituted in 1369, but rebuilt in 1753, for the relief of decayed seamen, and the Charterhouse (rebuilt 1645), an endowed institution for the poor, are the most worthy of note. There are three prettily laid out public parks. A town-hall, Italian Renaissance in style, was opened in 1866, as also was a new exchange. There are also a spacious gaol (1869), a new post-office (1877), the Theatre Royal (1873), the dock-office (1871), public baths (1850), a new market-hall (1887), and the James Reckitt Free Library (1889).
The docks and basins, comprising an area of upwards of 200 acres, have been constructed since 1774. The Victoria Dock (1850-64) covers 20 acres, exclusive of two large timber ponds and tidal basins which contain an area of about 9 acres; it partly occupies the site of an old citadel with a battery of twenty-one guns, which till 1864 commanded the entrance of Hull Roads and the Humber. The Albert Dock (24½ acres) was opened in 1869; and the Alexandra Dock (40 acres) in 1883, on the same day as the Hull and Barnsley Railway. Hull was one of the first ports in England to engage in the whale-fishery, an enterprise which has been abandoned; but its fisheries for edible fish employ, in conjunction with those of Grimsby, large fleets of boats, attended by steam auxiliaries. Hull is a principal steam-packet station, and ocean-steamers ply regularly to many of the principal ports of Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Russia, Germany, and Scandinavia. Its home trade is also very extensive. It is the great outlet for the woollen and cotton goods of the midland counties, with which it has direct communication, by means of railway, river, or canal. It is the chief entrepôt for German and Scandinavian overseas trade. There is also regular steam communication with New York and Boston; and an Australian trade and a very important trade with India have been inaugurated. Hull ranks third among British ports, the average yearly value of its imports exceeding £20,000,000, of its exports £16,000,000. From its geographical position it is confidently believed that, even were the interior of the country canalised as far as Leeds, the port at the mouth of the Humber would continue to maintain the position of third entrepôt of the kingdom. Shipbuilding yards are in operation; and, in addition to iron ships, important iron-clads have been built here for British and several foreign governments. The chief manufactures are those principally to which a flourishing port gives rise, as ropes, canvas, chain, chain-cables, machinery, &c. Many mills of various kinds are carried on, as well as chemical factories, tanneries, and sugar-refineries. Seed-crushing for oil is also an important staple industry, in which a large amount of capital is invested. Constituted the free borough of Kingston-on-Hull by Edward I. in 1299, the town owed much to its great merchant-house, the De la Poles, whose head, Michael, in 1385 was created Earl of Suffolk. In 1642 the refusal of its governor, Sir John Hotham, to admit Charles within its walls marked the outbreak of the Civil War, during which Hull was twice besieged by the royalists. It was made the seat of a suffragan bishop in 1534, and again in 1891. Since 1885 Hull has returned three instead of two members to parliament. The Hymers Library was given to the town in 1893, in which year there was a great dockers strike, with riots and incendiary fires in timber yards. Pop. (1851) 84,690; (1881) 165,690; (1891) 199,991.
See local works by Gent (1735; new ed. 1869), Frost (1827), Symons (1862), Sheahan (1864), and Tindall Wildridge (1888); also Freeman's English Towns (1883).