Widnes is well worth visiting also.

When the sun sets over the town, the light reflects off the distillation towers in the chemical factory throwing, an un-worldly orange hue across the whole place. It inspired Dante to write that famous poem. And Paul Simon of Simon and Garfunkel fame wrote 'Homeward Bound' in Widnes railway station at the end of one of their tours.

Everyday's an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines
And each town looks the same to me
The movies and the factories
And every stranger's face I see
Reminds me that I long to be .......

All large towns/cities have rough areas as well as classy ones. You might review your opinion on Glasgow if you spent any time in the Merchant City area. Similarly, students don't generally get the most attractive areas of towns to stay in. Leeds city centre is pretty impressive but friends of mine have sons staying in right dumps while at Uni there.

Anyway, why not Hull as city of culture over Leicester, Dundee or Swansea?

I went to a conference in Glasgow a while back and was pleasantly surprised. Sadly, mud sticks.

Tom Courtenay (Billy Liar, Doctor Zhivago, Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner etc.) is from Hull so it's AOK for me, even if if have spent many an evening escaping the Boulevard and KC (and the HJ where thar in town come to think of it) under a hail of cans.

The "culture" monicker has enabled lots of fine, but run-down, cities to re-invent and re-vitalise themselves - Dublin & Glasgow for two, both beautiful cities. I hope Hull does too, and RL benefits - nice to see somewhere north of Watford get some attention and monies.

I agree with the positive comments from @Ganson's Optician but must point out that it is wrong to compare Hull with Warrington & Stockton Heath as Warrington in not a City & Stockton Heath is a Village.

Glasgow is a fantastic city with some of the most wonderful architecture in the UK, Macintosh and Greek Thompson are world class for example and knock the spots off the gates and Palmyra Square I know it's hard to believe ha ha

Whenever I've visted it's people are really hospiatble, proud of their town, but, welcoming particularly when they latch on to the fact that you are from the North and from a 'working town' rather than 'that there London'.

Good luck to Hull I hope that their City of Culture tenure does them good, raises their profile attracts investment and sorts out some of the ridiculous statements being made on here by the residents from the Shangri La that is Warrington.

The avenues area which I refer to is a high street type area very similar to SH, which is why I draw the comparison.

You cannot compare any part of Hull with any part of Warrington. I congratulate Hull just as I congratulated Liverpool & hope that their year is as successful as Liverpool's was.

Ganson people are entitled to their opions . Beverly is nice but hull as a whole leaves a lot to be desired imo.

I'm made up that they have got the title of Capital of Culture. It will do wonders for the city and I'm glad it's been given to a Northern city.

And people who are calling Hull, to be perfectly honest, there are parts of Warrington that are complete s**tholes, so it tends to even itself out.

Fully agree, and I've always said that if Scotland becomes an independant nation, then Glasgow should become the new capital. As the in-laws are from there, I'm up there quite a lot and absolutely love the city. Edinburgh on the other hand, I really don't like. Full of stuck up individuals.

God help us!

I agree, but some of what I have read today is boring and ill informed stereotypes.

Glasgow is an absolute brilliant city, and Hull is nowhere near deserving of the bad rep that it gets. The city centre and marina area have a lot going for them.

It won't do what it did for Liverpool though because Liverpool was the European Capital of Culture, not just the UK, so obviously that was far more prestigious and resulted in European funding that won't be in place for Hull.

Well done to them all the same.

People from a town whose only advantage is good transport links make it easy to leave shouldn't really be slagging off anywhere at all really.

I've never offered an opinion on anywhere without first going there, a serious opinion that is. Parts of Leeds are a toilet but I love the place, one of the best places for a night out too.