Whitefriargate: Monks, music & ‘hope beyond the stars’

This Place, a column by Vicky Foster

Exploring Hull & East Yorkshire

I began this week by sipping on a gloriously golden, frothy turmeric latte and eating a squishy, sweet, vegan, gluten-free flapjack, speckled with small purple flowers and chocolate chips.

Sitting across from me was Hull’s tour guide, Paul Schofield. We were visiting Liquid Jade because it was the perfect place, tucked away in a courtyard beside Trinity House and Zebedee’s Yard, to have a pre-tour chat about Whitefriargate.

This was my first hour as poet-in-residence for the historic Hull street and, as far as I was concerned, it was off to a flying start. I could have spent all morning perusing the shelves stacked with beautiful big jars of teas and trying them out, but we had work to do. 

When we stepped outside it was into beautiful sunshine, and I turned automatically for the gated alley that would lead us out onto Whitefriargate. Paul, however, had something to show me before we did that.

The first surprise of the day. Tucked away on one side of the courtyard, behind wrought iron fencing, is a huge statue of Oceanus. He’s reclining, arms folded over a flowing urn, outside the Trinity House chapel, having been rescued from the Almshouse on Posterngate in 1934.

His muscular white limbs, long lustrous beard and curly topknot are a sight you need to work for. But crane your neck to find the right angle through the railings, and you’ll agree he was worth the effort. He set the tone for whole tour; you need to be prepared to look beyond the obvious to fully appreciate Whitefriargate.

RICH AND VARIED HISTORY: Whitefriargate

I’d anticipated there was going to be a lot of history to learn. I’ve known there was more going on than the ground floor shop fronts since I was 16, when I walked into work on my first day at Boots the Chemists and was shown the break room.

It must be the grandest tea-room in Hull, I joked, and I probably wasn’t far wrong. Paul explains that this building used to be The Neptune Inn, one of “the poshest” coaching inns in the North, and that huge room on the first floor was used as the banqueting hall.

If you crane your neck again, and look up, there’s a blue plaque to mark it out, sitting beneath the arched windows. Above those, crowning the building, is a grand coat of arms, picked out in blue and gold and green.

The spot for the building was chosen because it offered a view down Parliament Street onto Queens Gardens, which at the time was Queens Dock. Imagine rolling up in your carriage through the stone archway, then gazing over your cup of tea, down the Georgian street, to the masts of ships, the smell of salt, the bustle of the docks.

OCEANUS: ‘The father of the river gods’

Once we’d admired this place a while we made our way to the top of Whitefriargate, where Paul’s tours usually and rightly start, at Beverley Gate.

I’ll be surprised if there’s still a person in Hull who doesn’t know the story of how the civil war began on that spot, with John Hotham turning away Charles I when he came to claim his armoury.

But what I didn’t know was that the gate itself was made up of five million bricks, all made by hand in Hull, from the clay surrounding the city, and if that’s not a detail worthy of working its way into a poem, then I don’t know what is.

I also didn’t know that Whitefriargate wasn’t always Whitefriargate. It used to be called Aldgate and was the main thoroughfare to the River Hull and Holy Trinity Church. It took its current name from the Friary that used to stand on the spot where the Pandora shop currently resides.

It housed an order of Carmelite monks in the 13th century – there are records of Edward I sending them royal alms in 1289 – who remained there until Henry VIII put paid to such places in the 1500s with the dissolution of the monasteries. The monks were known as The White Friars of Hull.

‘THE PERFECT PLACE TO START OUR WALK’: The entrance to Liquid Jade cafe off Whitefriargate

Hull Trinity House – the seafaring organisation, not the school - own many of the buildings on Whitefriargate and have been around almost since the time the friary was built.

It was established in 1369, and when the friary closed they acquired the land. They’ve been providing aid to seafaring families for centuries, and their school, now relocated to Charlotte Street Mews, stood for over two centuries in what is now known as Zebedee’s Yard.

Their coat of arms can be found on buildings all along Whitefriargate – again, you’ll need to look up – and shows an inverted anchor with the words Spes Super Sydera. Hope Beyond the Stars. A poet’s dream, I thought, but it turns out I wasn’t the first poet to spot their potential.

Shane Rhodes already included these words in The City Speaks, his poem written in 2017 and now carved into Queen Victoria Square, a few minutes’ walk away. But these are not the only words of poetry you’ll find on Whitefriargate.

ANCIENT THOROUGHFARE: The view along Whitefriargate to Hull City Hall

Outside of the old Marks and Spencers building, which currently stands empty, is a plaque which makes up part of the Larkin trail. I thought I was fairly familiar with both Larkin’s work and the trail, but when Paul points this out, he enlightens me again.

The words “Bri Nylon baby dolls and shorties flounce in clusters” are picked out in bold text. They’re from Larkin’s The Large Cool Store which, the plaque claims, Larkin wrote “after hearing his colleagues discussing their purchases from the Whitefriargate Marks and Spencers.”

Ladies’ lingerie provides another interesting literary link to the street too. It’s part of Hull’s folklore that Dickens, while visiting for appearances and readings at Hull New Theatre (known at the time as The Assembly Rooms), bought stockings for his mistress on Whitefriargate.

Andrew Marvell, who lived a few streets away, would have been a regular visitor too, and currently the White Rabbit Trail is celebrating Lewis Carroll’s links with the city. His grandfather was the collector of customs in Hull and worked in the Customs House on Whitefriargate.

HISTORIC PLACE: The entrance to Whitefriargate from Beverley Gate

But maybe even more exciting than these literary links with the past, are the ones that are being forged now and that we can expect to see in the future.

Wrecking Ball Music and Books relocated to Whitefriargate a short while back and have already attracted a range of writers popping in to visit and sign their books. Barney Farmer was pictured in the shop just last week, and signed copies of Dean Wilson’s collections sit on a table inside the door.

But now they’ve also opened a beautiful new theatre space on the first floor, and with their track record of hosting and producing literary events like Contains Strong Language and Humber Mouth festivals, and announcements starting to surface about bookings in the coming months, it’s fair to assume there’ll be plenty to look forward to.

CULTURAL HUB: Inside Wrecking Ball Music and Books, which has just opened a new events space on the first floor