Claim To Fame

AMONG Hull's more unusual claims to fame is what is billed as the smallest window in the world, sited in what is certainly one of the world's strangest-named streets.

The window is in the George Hotel in Land Of Green Ginger

The window - little more than a glassed slit - and beside it a plaque making the more-modest claim that the window is the smallest in England

The story goes that the tiny window was installed so a porter or boy could be employed to look out for passing stagecoaches containing possible customers.

This is extremely unlikely on several grounds, including the fact that vision from the window is very limited, and anyway in the late 1600s, when the George was built, a landlord would have had no qualms about ordering a servant to stand outside the premises looking for customers, no matter the weather.

As to the name of the road, which was formerly called Old Beverley Street, there is no consensus as to its origin.

Fanciful suggestions include that it is a corruption of Lindegroen Junior, after a Dutch family that lived in the area.

Remembering that Hull was once a prosperous port, second in importance to London, a more likely reason is that the street contained a warehouse for ginger, which used to be a valuable spice.