All 13 bridges over the River Hull closed simultaneously for the first and only time in the city’s history – at 20:17 on the autumnal equinox 2017.
Stories, observations, reflections, sketches and film and photographs have been flowing in. Adventures from different perspectives. The Open Bridges exhibition will showcase these to enable everyone to see again the river, bridges and vessels from a different point of view with a venue, date and time to be confirmed very soon.
Everybody who was part of Open Bridges – the different vessels, the bridge operators, people involved in the music element – had different experiences along the way. Rich and I were at the dock and could hear what was going on on the radios and HM Lord Lieutenant told us what a fantastic adventure she had on the Pickle. So it’s great to see this film of the Open Bridges adventure from Captain Mal Nicholson and HMS Pickle courtesy of Les Drake and Digital Creations.
Open Bridges is a whole tapestry of threads. It’s a celebration of the lifeblood of the city, the River Hull and its 13 movable bridges – more than any other city. Beautiful historic vessels representing three centuries – 18th century HMS Pickle, 19th century Humber Keel Comrade and 20th century MV Syntan mustered on the River Hull, met on the Humber by powerful 21st century tugs from SMS Towage and Svitzer. Open Bridges is an exploration of the notion of freedom during the City of Culture’s Freedom Season. The culmination of Open Bridges – the live world premiere of John Stead’s new musical work, Moments in Time was magical. And the city momentarily split in two – for the first time ever.
Rich & Lou Duffy-Howard
Gallery of photographs from the evening by Mike Hood.
Open Bridges is an independent all Hull based project by Duffy-Howard Music taking place during the Hull City of Culture Freedom Season. We are delighted that every aspect of planning and delivery of Open Bridges is by people in Hull.