Families invited to travel back in time to Hull’s Victorian Christmas

Families invited to travel back in time to Hull’s Victorian Christmas

Families are being invited to take a trip back in time by joining in the activities of a Victorian Christmas taking place in Hull next week.

Visitors to the event in the Museums Quarter will have the opportunity to make Christmas decorations, pose for an antique-style family portrait and enjoy a Victorian Christmas market as Heritage Learning joins businesses in the Old Town to bring a touch of history to the festivities.

The Museums Quarter has hosted Christmas flashback events for 20 years and this year is being supported more than ever by Old Town pubs, by Trinity Market organiser Julie Buffey and by HullBID.

The result will be a day of activities on Saturday November 30th starting at 10am which will illustrate the influence of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on turning Christmas into a family celebration.

The festive market will take place along Scale Lane Staithe and within the Streetlife Museum grounds and a vintage bus will transport shoppers from Paragon Interchange to Gandhi Way from 9.45am with a flat fare of 50p.

Other attractions will include real horse and carriage rides around the Old Town and a fancy dress competition. Scrooge will be based in the Streetlife Museum, telling visitors his Christmas story and begrudgingly giving key rings containing a real Victorian penny to the first 100 members of the public to arrive in Victorian costume, while the two lucky winners of the fancy dress competition will win family tickets to “Jack and the Beanstalk” at Hull New Theatre on Thursday December 5.

Families will be shown how to get involved in Christmas preparations Victorian style, by collecting scraps of material or newspaper to create their own Christmas tree decorations.

The Heritage Learning team will also run a period photography booth where, for just £2 per print, visitors can pose in original Victorian costume for portraits captured by a professional photographer and printed on the spot ready to take away. They can then visit the craft activities at Wilberforce House to transform it into a Victorian Christmas card.

For further details visit the Heritage Learning website at http://www.heritage-learning.com/victorian-christmas-get-involved/

Organiser of the market Julie Buffey said the emphasis will be on history and crafts. She said: “It will have a Victorian theme and we will focus on the sort of hand-crafted items that make perfect Christmas presents.
“Our Trinity Open Market has become increasingly popular among shoppers and stallholders since we launched it last year and now we are taking it on tour.

“HullBID provides the market stalls, and a team of staff to put them up before every event and remove them afterwards, which is great support.”

HullBID City Centre Manager Kathryn Shillito said: “The market is a great addition to the Victorian Christmas event and we expect it to prove very popular among people shopping for gifts that are a bit different.

“But the key to the event is the way in which the businesses are working together to attract visitors to the Old Town and generate trade.”
Further information:

More info about the event here

View all Articles