The Half Life of the Blitz: memory, urban space and civic identity in a provincial town, 1939 - present.

The project examines how understandings of our shared pasts have tangible impacts upon the politics, culture and even built environments of cities through a study of the post-war experience and memory of one of Britain's most historically neglected cities, Kingston-Upon-Hull. Local memory contends that Hull was Britain's most heavily bombed city, but was excluded from the roll call of national sacrifice that focuses upon emblematic examples like London and Coventry. The severity of the Blitz on Hull and the fortitude of the citizenry have become pillars of a civic memory that forms a stark and contentious counterpoint to the city's alleged excision from what, in the twenty-first century is one of Britain's most potent, contentious and frequently invoked national stories. Combined with Hull's relatively isolated position - in both geographical terms and in the national consciousness- a comparative lack of post-war reconstruction and the subsequent decline of the local economy, the narrative that Hull's sacrifice was forgotten, even maligned has become central to the city's personal, historical and political narratives of the post-war. Hull gives us a visible example of how a powerful narrative can infuse debates and cultural forms. The project enables us to ask broader questions about the importance of historically contingent identities in other urban settings, so has important implications for heritage and planning, whilst also examining contentious areas of contemporary debate over the place of the Second World War in constructions of twenty-first century Britishness. In Hull, inconsistent post-war rebuilding, halting urban renewal schemes, deindustrialisation, lack of investment and unemployment have, over the last 80 years, been repeatedly framed through a narrative that civic fortitude was not reciprocated by the post-war state. Contemporary understandings of the tangible links to the Blitz have been underscored by the popularity of Hull's 'Blitz Trail' walking tour, invoked in angry reactions to rumours of the city's exclusion from 'HS3' rail links, fed into political narratives of 'forgotten' northern towns and ignored populations, and featured in campaigns to preserve symbolic post-war buildings. By exploring the progression, contestation and deployment of these narratives the project uses the centrality of the Blitz's legacy as a lens through which to historicise the formation and importance of contentious local identities, and their tangible impacts upon the fabric and governance of cities.

The project's first phase involves a series of public workshops, surveys and interviews that will build-up a legacy of local engagement and resources, but also constantly shape the first strand of the research, helping the project team develop the direction of their investigations The second phase then uses the directions generated through public engagement to inform research approaches from oral, urban and governmental history, examining local and central government documents and schemes alongside campaigns and media coverage to track how the evolving legacy of the Blitz has been imagined and used, whilst conducting oral history interviews with residents. The project builds on its partnership with Hull History Centre to create spaces and opportunities for a diverse set of interested groups, organisations and individuals to engage with their urban and civic past. The public will have the opportunity to follow the ways that their contributions shape the project via social media and the internet. School workshops, online accessibility to workshops, social media and short videos will stimulate participation beyond traditional audiences for history and heritage. We aim to create a live dialogue during the duration of the project that will continually stimulate an already vibrant heritage and historical community of interest in Hull, but also move the researchers past their own a priori judgements about what should be researched.