The Deep is one of the stops on the maritime guided walks delivered by volunteers who are White Badge tour guides.
Here's more information on the visitor attraction by Janet Penny, Hull Maritime volunteer.
Overview:
A striking building on the east bank of the city where the river Hull and the Humber estuary meet, the Deep is the world’s only submarium and holds at least 3,500 exhibits including sharks, sea turtles, tropical fish, penguins and jelly fish. The massive tank holds 2,500,000 litres of water and includes a see-through lift that takes visitors up through it.
The architect was Sir Terry Farrell who also designed the MI6 building on the banks of the river Thames in London. It was constructed by Merco-Schmidlin and took 17 months to build being completed in 2001 and opening to the public in 2002. The land on which it is built is known as Sammy’s Point, named after Martin Samuelson who had a shipbuilding yard on the site in the 19th century.
The Deep was built as part of the UK National Lottery Millennium Commission Project at a cost of £52.285 million, half being paid by the Millennium Commission and the rest from other sources.
The Deep is reliant on ticket sales and is proving to be extremely popular and one of the most visited attractions in the country. A bonus of buying a ticket is that it is valid for a year enabling visitors to make return visits.
Other uses:
As well as being a visitor attraction the Deep is a landmark centre for marine research and also contains a business centre.
The draw for the third round of the FA cup was held in the Deep on 8 December 2014, it was broadcast live on BBC 2 and gave it national attention. Hull City were drawn away to Arsenal but lost 2-0!
The building was used to great effect during city of culture in 2017 when an art installation depicting Hull’s historic role with regard to immigration and emigration - Arrivals and Departures - was projected onto the side of the building.
