Hull, England City of Culture 2017: No longer 'England's crappest town'

In 2003, readers of The Idler magazine voted Hull the UK's crappest town, beating off strong competition from Morecambe, Basingstoke and Liverpool. I doubt many of them had ever been to Hull, but that's incidental; Yorkshire's only maritime city has long been cursed by a perception of crapness.

This image problem is one of the reasons Kingston upon Hull (to use its proper name) was named "UK City of Culture 2017". The competition, which runs every four years, is modelled on the European City of Culture, which was so successful in reviving the fortunes of Glasgow and crappest town runner-up Liverpool.

The win means £25 million of improvements and a year-long celebration that will include 25 festivals, 12 artists' residences and 1500 special events.

It's hoped this will generate an additional £184 million in tourism revenue, money the city desperately needs. Hull is the tenth most deprived local authority area in the UK, with one in three children living in poverty. The city's life expectancy figures are in the UK's bottom 6 per cent and it has one of the worst unemployment rates in the country.

All of which I'm struggling to reconcile as I tuck into tender medallions of pork wrapped in smoked saddleback bacon in the plush interior of Hull's 1884 Dock Street Kitchen. The restaurant won gold in VisitEngland's 2014 Awards for Excellence and is well on its way to a Michelin star. Outside, a gleaming flotilla of motor boats bob in a state-of-the-art marina that's surrounded by designer apartments. Err... what happened to the UK's Crappest Town?

While the rest of the country has been busy making "Get the Hull out of there" jokes, Hull has been quietly reinventing itself. Stroll through the city centre and you'll find gems such as the Ferens Art Gallery, which has a world-class collection of European Old Masters, including Frans Hals and Canaletto, alongside contemporary works from British artists such as David Hockney.

Hidden among the quaint cobbled streets of the Old Town is Hull's Museum Quarter. Here, you can spend a morning at the birthplace of William Wilberforce, the man who spearheaded the abolition of England's slave trade, and the afternoon gazing at a life-sized mammoth in the Hull and East Riding Museum of Archaeology. Alternatively, immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of yesteryear at the Streetlife Museum of Transport or learn about the hazards of deep-sea fishing on board the trawler Arctic Corsair.