Kingston upon Hull. Yorkshire port at the junction of the river Hull with the Humber, usually called just ‘Hull’. It originated as a monastic wool-exporting port, but was acquired and renamed by Edward I (1293). Its huge Holy Trinity church, and its Trinity House for mariners, testify to its late medieval importance. Henry VIII made it a fortified base, crucial enough for its control to become the flashpoint for civil war in 1642. Hull's MPs included Andrew Marvell in the 17th cent. and William Wilberforce in the 18th. By 1800 it was the third British port (measured by volume of trade) after London and Liverpool. The city (as it became in 1897) was hard hit by Second World War bombing, and by the collapse of its fishing industry in the 1970s.

David M. Palliser

Hull (officially Kingston upon Hull) City and unitary authority on the n bank of the Humber estuary, ne England. Britain's third largest port, it was founded in the late 13th century and grew around its fishing industry. Hull gained city status in 1897. The decline of the fishing industry has been partly offset by the construction of the Humber Bridge (1981), one of the world's longest single-span suspension bridges. The city is home to the University of Hull (1954) and the University of Humberside (1992). Pop. (1994 est.) 269,144.

Hull, Kingston upon. See Kingston upon Hull.

Kingston upon Hull Official name of Hull