With a past that can best be described as multi-hued - simply because 'colourful' fails to do it justice - Hull has often been at the epicentre of wars, and not just in the city centre on a Saturday night.
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Kingston upon Hull (or should it be Hell?) sits in isolation on the north east coast of England. It's nabbed the number two spot thanks to some terrible crime stats, and who's to stop them? Last year, Hull's boys in blue were named as the joint worst performing force in the UK.
Hull was saved from the number one spot by its impressive sporting facilities, although we're not entirely sure that they're being used. But things may be about to change, as when you're on the bottom, where else is there to go?
William Wilberforce, the leader of the parliamentary campaign against the slave trade, was born in Hull and still stands as one of the city's best known exports, along with fish and a fondness for rugby league. With a myriad of top sporting teams in ice hockey, baseball and the ubiquitous rugby league (Hull Kingston Rovers compete in the Super League but are just one of hordes of teams that play the sport here), there's certainly a case to argue that it's a male-dominated city.
That theory is reinforced with the same kind of steel used to build the Humber Bridge, the fourth longest single-span suspension bridge in the world. Indeed, the hourly rate of pay for female residents in Hull - named as the least desirable place to live in the UK in 2005 - is on average £2 per hour lower than the mean rate across the UK, doing nothing to dispel the fact that women get a particularly bum deal.
On the whole though, unemployment is a problem, being nearly 3 per cent higher than the average national rate, with 8.3 per cent of the working-age population unemployed, compared with an average of only 5.3 per cent among the national population at large. Residents' employment prospects are unlikely to be helped by the general lack of success in secondary education, with only 26 per cent of pupils achieving five GCSE passes including English and Maths.
A plus is the fact that property in the area is generally pretty cheap, and despite the average house prices in Hull doubling in the past five years, they are still barely half the national average - there's a statistic to mull over while devouring those plentiful cod and chips.
<< Go back to the index to learn about more places in the top and bottom 20
Have your say and see what other people are saying about Kingston upon Hull and the other 433 UK boroughs >>
Find out which unlucky borough took this year's crown >>
Local area info on Kingston upon Hull from upmystreet.com >>
Kingston upon Hull City Council >>
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