Boarded-up Kingston upon Hull: Gone Shopping

Image: © Bernard Sharp Taken: 8 Dec 2022

According to the Hull Daily Mail, Kingston upon Hull has more empty shops than anywhere else in the country: https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/hull-most-empty-shops-out-6354310 I set out to record some of them. For a long time, Whitefriargate was the prime shopping street in the city. With new shopping centres having opened at Prospect Centre, Prince's Quay and St Stephen's, together with the economic downturn since 2008, and the coronavirus pandemic, many of the street's staple retail units have become empty. To reverse this trend, grants to businesses have become available through The Hull and East Yorkshire LEP's Humber High Street Challenge Fund alongside Historic England's High Street Heritage Action Zone. Nos.22 and 23 Whitefriargate, formerly occupied by Hull Remembers and Sony Centre respectively, are presently vacant. The latter carries advertising for apartments at Friary Chambers, Nos.24-28 Whitefriargate. If you like this image and others in this series, you may like this too. Photographer Martin Amis began a project in 2018 about the effects of Brexit on his native Kent. Here is his story in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/nov/27/closed-martin-amis-ghost-shops-kent-in-pictures

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