Spring Bank, Hull
Spring Bank is a road that runs westwards from Hull city centre. It is a busy street with lots of cafes and shops. It has always been a busy, bustling city street. These days it has become more multicultural. In the early 2000s, the government sent many Kurdish asylum seekers to Hull and many found a home there, in the streets around Spring Bank. Since that time, more migrants have settled in the area and now it is known as a multicultural hub. An article in the Hull Daily Mail says ‘From Kurds to Syrians, Chinese people to Caribbean people, Brits to Poles – there is no end to the diversity in Spring Bank, and the influx of different cultures has transformed the street from what it was before the turn of the Millennium.’ Although when Kurds first came to Hull they encountered a lot of racism and found it difficult, over the years diversity has come to define Spring Bank. As one Kurdish resident says: ‘we came here with nothing – now we are part of the community.’
Participants in our Exploring and Belonging project chose Spring Bank as a place that is important to them. Many refugees and asylum seekers find the street to be a great place to shop and to spend time. There is a mosque on Spring Bank, and another mosque close by. The diverse cultures of Spring Bank help people to feel at home.
Street scenes on Spring Bank
Spring Bank in the 1970s
You can get vegetables from all around the world on Spring Bank today
Spring Bank Entry 1 Reading book
This reading book has been prepared by participants on the project in collaboration with the MESH team. The book has been prepared for learners working at Entry 1 level. You can read the book on this page by turning the pages in the panel on the right. You can also bring this up to full screen to read together.
Below is an option to download the reading book. It has been prepared as a pdf which can then be printed. To print as an A5 booklet, open in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Choose print, then under ‘Page Sizing and Handling’ choose ‘Booklet’. Under ‘Booklet subset’ choose ‘Both Sides’. Under ‘Binding’ choose ‘left’. Orientation should be portrait. Now press print! The pdf will print in booklet form which can then be folded and stapled for use with learners. For best results use a long arm stapler like this one.
Spring Bank Entry2+ Reading book
This reading book has been prepared by participants on the project in collaboration with the MESH team. The book has been prepared for learners working at Entry 2+/3 level. You can read the book on this page by turning the pages in the panel on the right. You can also bring this up to full screen to read together.
Below is an option to download the reading book. It has been prepared as a pdf which can then be printed. To print as an A5 booklet, open in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Choose print, then under ‘Page Sizing and Handling’ choose ‘Booklet’. Under ‘Booklet subset’ choose ‘Both Sides’. Under ‘Binding’ choose ‘left’. Orientation should be portrait. Now press print! The pdf will print in booklet form which can then be folded and stapled for use with learners. For best results use a long arm stapler like this one.
This slide resource is the same as the E1 reading book above. It has been prepared with embedded audio to help learners with reading and pronunciation. You can use this directly from this webpage, or download via the button below.
his slide resource is the same as the E2+ reading book above. It has been prepared with embedded audio to help learners with reading and pronunciation. You can use this directly from this webpage, or download via the button below.
Mohammad, one of the Exploring and Belonging participants, talks to a shopkeeper on Spring Bank
In this video, one of the Exploring & Belonging participants talks about photographs on the wall of a restaurant on Spring Bank. The restaurant is Kurdish, and the photographs are of Kurdistan. In restaurants like this and many other shops, images of home help people to feel more at home in Hull. The two places become linked, helping people to feel like they belong here, as well as there.
Acknowledgement
Using money raised by National Lottery players, The National Lottery Heritage Fund supports projects that connect people and communities with the UK’s heritage. Exploring & Belonging is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to run sessions for refugees and asylum seekers to enable them to explore, discuss and write about what is of value as local heritage in the place they live in Yorkshire & Humber. These resources have been generated by participants in these sessions, in collaboration with the MESH team. This project has also been supported by Migration Yorkshire.
We'd love to hear your feedback
We’re always looking to improve our MESH produced resources, and would love to hear your feedback. Please do fill out this very quick feedback form, and share any information you feel is appropriate in the comments field, including how you used this resource, any problems you encountered, or successes!
The MESH team will consider your feedback and use it to develop our resources.
Many thanks.
Copywrite Statement
The Exploring and Belonging resources on the Learning English Plus website are provided under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, unless otherwise stated.
You may share and adapt these materials for non-commercial purposes, as long as you credit MESH Exploring & Belonging Project and the National Lottery Heritage Fund UK, and distribute any adaptations under the same license.
For further information please contact info@yhmesh.org.uk
