‘Beautiful Hull’: Tour guide Paul Schofield on the city he loves
‘THIS JOB COULD HAVE BEEN INVENTED FOR ME’: Hull tour guide Paul Schofield
He is one of Hull’s most passionate advocates and has revealed its charms and secrets to generations of visitors. Here, Paul Schofield, the tour guide par excellence, tells Simon Bristow about the job he loves and what makes Hull so special
He is the go-to man for businesses and tourism chiefs when it comes to selling Hull, and even found one of his guided walks on the itinerary for a Belgian couple’s honeymoon.
And the reason they keep coming is no-one quite knows Hull like Paul Schofield.
This son of an East Hull docker and a wartime evacuee from the other side of the city has seen his hometown’s bad times and good; from the industrial decline of the 1970s to the City of Culture triumph in 2017, and now it’s battle against a global pandemic.
Paul has been an expert tour guide for 32 years and is so immersed in Hull’s history and architecture that to him nearly every street and building has a story to tell, and the pavements ring with echoes of the past.
This is soon apparent as we sit on a sunny September afternoon outside his sister Helen’s Liquid Jade café off Whitefriargate, although Paul is just as likely to be found in one of his treasured Old Town hostelries – his Pub Walks are just one of ten he offers across the city.
As we discuss the possible resurgence of Whitefriargate, Paul points out that Charles Dickens shopped there to buy silk stockings for his mistress, Nellie Ternan, the daughter of a Hull actress. Dickens made three appearances at the Hull Assembly Rooms, now the site of the New Theatre, Paul says.
Paul grew up in Bilton Grange and read politics and sociology at Warwick University, which he describes as “half a degree; with sociology I’ve no idea what it was”.
He returned to Hull in 1982, during a period of “mass unemployment in the North”. Against that grim backdrop Paul worked on a number of community schemes that revealed his interest in the environment around him, including Keep Britain Tidy and the British Trust For Conservation Volunteers, which involved tree-planting and work in schools.
He was soon to embark on the career to which he has dedicated his life.
“What changed my life was a course at Hull University in Heritage Interpretation,” he said. “It was English Heritage-accredited and involved a mixture of local history. We had to guide people around the street – that sort of stuff. If there was a job invented for me, this was it.”
Paul then responded to an advert on BBC Radio Humberside to train as a tour guide, which was funded by the EEC, the forerunner of the European Union. Paul and Keith Daddy, who he still works alongside, then both became self-employed tour guides, starting in 1988.
Paul began receiving £40 a week under the Enterprise Allowance scheme, which he describes as “the only good thing Thatcher did”.
“I haven’t looked back since,” said Paul, 59. “I’ll never get rich but it doesn’t matter. I do a job I love.”
He works closely with the city council and Visit Hull. “I’ve got a good relationship with the council,” he said. “They’ve been good to me over the years; fantastic.” As well as private bookings for people from across the UK and Europe, Paul also shows international visitors around for some of Hull’s biggest employers, including Smith & Nephew and RB (Reckitt Benckiser).
He also takes a particular pleasure in changing the perceptions of one group who can be a prickly bunch – journalists.
Paul said: “I really love walking journalists around because you get to change their minds. I’ve had them from some of the big papers, travel journals, and now bloggers. You can tell some of them have got a really negative image of Hull and some have got no idea. I take them into the Old Town and they say, ‘Oh, I didn’t expect this’.”
‘I LOVE CHANGING PEOPLE’S MINDS ABOUT HULL’: Tour guide Paul Schofield
One of these was the travel writer Lottie Gross, who visited in 2016 for Rough Guides.
“She did a fantastic article,” said Paul. “She wanted to come up before City of Culture and she loved it. It was like ‘Wow’, and that’s what we needed. We bring them here and we rarely get a negative article or feature.
“They can’t believe how many good pubs we’ve got. There’s also the independence. A lot of people in Hull don’t realise we’ve got a lot of independent shops and businesses, and visitors pick up on that.”
This is certainly true of Humber Street and the arcades, and there are similar hopes for Whitefriargate. Paul is soon to be involved in a “special project” with the council for a new tourism trail featuring Whitefriargate. Independent businesses such as Wrecking Ball Press have already announced plans to relocate there.
“I’m really encouraged by Whitefriargate,” said Paul. “It will take off, like Humber Street. You plant little seeds and let Hull people get on with it. It’s the ambience of the city – the Old Town has got better and better and there’s more people living in the Old Town now.”
Asked what the best thing about Hull is, Paul, like many others, says “the friendliness of the people”. This was certainly the experience of a group of Londoners who came up by train in 2017.
Paul said: “They were staying for two or three nights and I left them in the Lion and Key. When I saw them the next day they said they had got their maps out and people were coming over asking where they wanted to go. They couldn’t get over it, and that’s just normal.”
Another aspect that sets Hull apart is its layout, Paul said. “We’ve got a lot of big open spaces, which you don’t get in a lot of English cities,” he said.
Recent and ongoing developments only add to Hull’s appeal to residents and visitors, Paul said. “Look at Trinity Square – that’s beautiful. A big success story has been the indoor market, Trinity Market. It’s great and it’s young people who have taken over that; it’s very dynamic.”
The pivotal moment for redefining Hull’s sense of itself, and its place in the national consciousness, was, of course, its City of Culture title, which in some ways it has never really lost.
“I think we’ll look back and think City of Culture was the big catalyst,” said Paul.
Asked if he could remember where he was when the announcement was made, he said: “I was in bed. It was quite an early announcement. I had my radio on and I remember them saying we are switching over to the Minister, ‘And the winner is …’
“There was quite a gap and you’re on tenterhooks. Then they said ‘Hull!’ Oh god. Then I was out of bed. I won’t lie, I had a bit of a cry but they were tears of joy. I put the telly on and saw them jumping up and down in Hull Truck.
“I had a little feeling we’d win. It was a very professional bid, outstanding. There was this real sense of community spirit. Everyone came together; the private sector, public sector, the voluntary sector. That’s what we can do. I think it gave people a lot of confidence, which has carried on since 2017.”
‘THAT CITY OF CULTURE CONFIDENCE IS STILL THERE’: Tour guide Paul Schofield
Paul has built up his extensive knowledge of the city through research, his own experience, and by simply talking to people.
He said: “When I started in 1988 you had to go to the Records Office to find something out, but the internet’s been a godsend. And people share things and I’m all for sharing.
“I don’t really like being called a historian because I’m a tour guide. People who come on the walks normally have a good day out. My style is not to give out facts and figures – I can if needed – I just show them around and talk about it. They just want a feel of the city and to see what there is.”
Asked if anything had gone wrong on one of his walks, Paul said: “Well I’ve never lost anyone. But you do have to bite your tongue sometimes. Once we were walking by Myton Bridge and this lady said, ‘Is that the Humber Bridge’?”
Hull is very much a city of bridges, and on that subject Paul is also looking forward to the opening of the new pedestrian bridge over Castle Street. It has been designed by the same architects who created Scale Lane Bridge; Paul’s favourite.
“That will win awards,” he said. “They are going for quality and that’s great. If you are going to do something do it well. They had a plan; let’s link the Old Town to the Marina and Humber Street and the pier, and that’s what they’re doing.”
‘IT’S BEAUTIFUL’: Paul Schofield in Trinity Square
For Paul, there are many reasons to feel positive about the future, while hoping the Covid-19 pandemic will loosen its grip.
“There is a vibe around the city now that a lot of visitors are picking up,” he said. “That wasn’t there when I started in 1988. There’s a lot of regeneration going on and changes for the better.”
The Covid-19 restrictions mean Paul can currently only escort groups of five. He also does guided walks of Beverley. More details are on his website, TourHull.com.
He has no plans to retire just yet. “I did one the other day and I thought it’s not really a job – I enjoy it too much.”