When Philip Larkin arrived in Hull in 1955, he came not as a celebrated poet but as a 33-year-old librarian seeking steady employment. What he found instead was a city that would shape three decades of his life and some of the finest poetry written in post-war Britain.
Arrival at the Edge
Larkin had never considered Hull before applying for the post of University Librarian at the University of Hull. "I never thought about Hull until I was here," he later remarked. "I rather like being on the edge of things." That sentiment, captured in his poem "Here" as "this isolate city spread alongside water," would prove prophetic. The city he once described as "chilly and smells of fish" became his home for thirty years, until his death in 1985.
His first year brought a succession of temporary lodgings: bedsits, Holtby House in Cottingham, brief stays on Hallgate. Then in 1956, he moved into the top-floor flat at 32 Pearson Park, a Queen Anne building overlooking the park that would be his home for the next eighteen years.
The Librarian's Craft
Larkin's role at the Brynmor Jones Library was no sinecure. Over three decades, he transformed the institution from a modest collection into a modern research library. When he arrived, the library's budget stood at £4,500; by the time he left, it had grown to £448,500 in real terms, a twelvefold increase. The stock sextupled under his stewardship.
His most significant achievement was overseeing the planning and construction of the new Brynmor Jones Library, which opened in 1967 and was named after Vice-Chancellor Sir Brynmor Jones. Larkin made major structural suggestions that were adopted by the University Grants Committee. In 1977, he introduced computerised records using the Geac computer system, making Hull the first library in Europe to do so.
The library became more than his workplace; it was his study. Colleagues noted his habit of arriving early and leaving late, using his office as a space for both administration and poetry. His secretary, Betty Mackereth, who served from 1957 until his death, controlled all access to him. The arrangement suited Larkin's temperament perfectly: he could engage with the world on his own terms.
Pearson Park and the Poetry of Looking Outward
The flat at 32 Pearson Park provided Larkin with what he called a "green-fringed eyrie." From its windows, he could observe the park and the city beyond without being observed himself. The view inspired his 1974 poem "High Windows," with its image of "sun-comprehending glass" and "deep blue air."
It was here that he wrote some of his most celebrated works: "The Trees," "Sad Steps," "Broadcast," and "Vers de Société." The flat also saw the composition of "Toads" and "Toads Revisited," poems that grapple with work and obligation. In 2017, the building was Grade II listed specifically for its literary connection to Larkin.
When he finally bought a house of his own in 1974, he moved to 105 Newland Park, a detached 1950s property he described as "utterly undistinguished." He lived there until his death, sharing the house from 1983 with Monica Jones, a lecturer from Leicester with whom he had maintained a relationship since the 1950s.
Hull in the Lines
Larkin's poetry is inseparable from the city that housed him. "The Whitsun Weddings," perhaps his most famous poem, begins with a train journey from Hull Paragon Station on Whit Saturday. The poem captures the peculiar atmosphere of the station and the railway line south, with its "frail travelling coincidence" of wedding parties boarding at each stop.
Other Hull locations appear throughout his work. "Friday Night in the Royal Station Hotel" is set in the hotel that still stands near the station. "The Large Cool Store" takes its subject from Marks & Spencer on Whitefriargate. "The Building" examines Hull Royal Infirmary's tower block, where Larkin was an inpatient several times. "MCMXIV" references the war memorial at Sharp Street and Newland Avenue.
Even the city's more overlooked spaces found their way into his verse. The General Cemetery on Spring Bank West, which Larkin called "the most beautiful spot in Hull," features in his work. He actively defended it from closure during his lifetime.
The Private Hours
Beyond the library, Larkin constructed a life of carefully managed routine. He learned to drive in 1963, buying a Singer Gazelle as his first car. He became a familiar figure at certain Hull pubs: Ye Olde Black Boy on High Street, The White Hart on Alfred Gelder Street, The Haworth Arms, and The Gardeners Arms.
His passion for jazz was no casual interest. From 1961 to 1971, he served as jazz critic for the Daily Telegraph, and his personal collection eventually exceeded 1,000 records. In 1977, he gave talks on jazz at Ye Olde Black Boy and The White Hart for the Hull Jazz Record Society. The City Hall hosted concerts he attended regularly.
Shopping trips took him to Newland Avenue, where the Monica Cinema (now the Larkin Bar) and various shops provided the ordinary backdrop against which his introspective poetry flourished. He regularly took the Humber Ferry to New Holland for pleasure, enjoying the water that defines Hull's geography.
Declining Laureateship
Despite his growing reputation, Larkin remained ambivalent about public honours. He declined the Poet Laureateship in 1984, following the death of Sir John Betjeman. He had previously declined an OBE in 1968. He did, however, accept a Companion of Honour, the Shakespeare Prize from Hamburg's Alfred Toepfer Foundation in 1976, and the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry.
His final years were spent battling oesophageal cancer. He died at Hull Royal Infirmary on 2 December 1985, aged 63, and was buried at Cottingham municipal cemetery on 7 December. His headstone bears the simple inscription: "Philip Larkin 1922–1985 Writer."
Per his deathbed request, his diaries were destroyed by Monica Jones and Betty Mackereth. The act was characteristic of a man who had spent his life controlling what the world knew of him, even in death.
From Reluctance to Recognition
Hull's relationship with its most famous literary resident has evolved considerably since his passing. In 2003, a Poetry Book Society survey named Larkin Britain's best-loved poet of the previous fifty years. In 2008, The Times declared him Britain's greatest post-war writer.
The city has embraced its connection through the Larkin 25 festival, which ran from June to December 2010 to mark the 25th anniversary of his death. The celebration included "Larkin with Toads," a trail of forty fibre-glass toad sculptures that generated an estimated £1 million in economic impact. Poetry appeared on local buses, and a jazz compilation, "Larkin's Jazz," was released.
The festival's culmination came on 2 December 2010, when a bronze statue by Martin Jennings was unveiled at Hull Paragon Interchange. The sculpture depicts Larkin hurrying for a train, manuscript in hand. Its base bears a line from "The Whitsun Weddings." A floor stone was laid in his honour at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey on 2 December 2016.
The Larkin Trail Today
Visitors to Hull can now follow the Larkin Trail, which encompasses more than nineteen locations across three sections: the city centre, beyond the city centre, and west to east. The trail includes his Pearson Park flat, his Newland Park house, the Brynmor Jones Library, his favourite pubs, and the cemetery where he is buried.
The Hull History Centre, opened in 2010, houses the Larkin Archive: manuscripts, letters, photographs, and a library of over 1,000 books and records. It stands as a testament to how thoroughly this reluctant Yorkshireman documented both his interior life and the city that contained it.
Larkin once observed that Hull "wasn't on the way to anywhere." Today, thanks to his poetry, literary pilgrims make their way there deliberately, seeking the places that shaped some of the twentieth century's most enduring verse. The isolate city, it seems, found its voice in his lines.