... There's no road name given in the address. I plugged in Nelson Street which is apparently very close but once you see the brown tourism signs, ignore your Sat Nav and follow them. It's the kind of place you can see but, like a tantallus, you can't quite grab it.
First impressions - I'd ... Read review
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Advantages: Good sharks, interesting building Disadvantages: Too many videos and gimmicks, not enough fish, dark central tank
...time - it's not exactly the sort of place you pass on the way to anywhere else. So knowing that the one thing I really wanted to see was the new 'Submarium' (nonsense name, I thought) I battled the one way system and a temperamental sat nav system to find it.
Firstly, if you too are trying to get there with a Sat Nav system, it can be tricky. There's no road name given in the address. I plugged in Nelson Street which is apparently ... ...Nav and follow them. It's the kind of place you can see but, like a tantallus, you can't quite grab it.
First impressions - I'd love to say they were 'Wow! What an amazing looking building?' but in fact my first impressions were 'Gosh, is the weather ALWAYS as awful as this?' The wind was blowing a gale and the spray off the Humber was spiking horizontally across the car park. Apparently the building was designed by Terry Farrell and ... more
I hadn't been to Hull for a long time and I wasn't expecting to be back again for a long time - it's not exactly the sort of place you pass on the way to anywhere else. So knowing that the one thing I really wanted to see was the new 'Submarium' (nonsense name, I thought) I battled the one way system and a temperamental sat nav system to find it.
Firstly, if you too are trying to get there with a Sat Nav system, it can be tricky. There's no road name given in the address. I plugged in Nelson Street which is apparently very close but once you see the brown tourism signs, ignore your Sat Nav and follow them. It's the kind of place you can see but, like a tantallus, you can't quite grab it.
First impressions - I'd love to say they were 'Wow! What an amazing looking building?' but in fact my first impressions were 'Gosh, is the weather ALWAYS as awful as this?' The wind was blowing a gale and the spray off the Humber was spiking horizontally across the car park. Apparently the building was designed by Terry Farrell and Partners but I'm not going to pretend I've heard of him - however, it's got touches of the style of Norman Foster (my architecture hero) or Frank Gehry.
Faced with an iconic new building, I would normally have taken a big deep breath and got a good eyeful of this stunning wedge of silver and glass before walking in. However, with that wind, I could hardly stand up, let alone admire the view so I put my head down and ran for it.
Background ********** It's only fair at this stage to point out that I adore big aquariums and have been to many really good ones. Therefore, I may be a bit harsh in comparing The Deep to places like the Oceanarium in Lisbon (see my recent review) and the KL Aquarium in Kuala Lumpur. I'm also a keen diver and have seen a lot of good stuff in the raw so I tend to scepticism when the wrong kinds of fish are put together or the coral is plastic.
If you haven't been to one of these big aquariums, you'll probably really enjoy The Deep - but in my capacity as a 'Fish Anorak', I possibly set higher criteria to judge an aquarium by.
Car Parking ********** There's a mid-sized car park beside The Deep. I would imagine at busy times it wouldn't be anything like big enough. I arrived at a few minutes to 5 pm and there were only half a dozen cars there.
In front of you there's a nice big bronze of a shark that would probably keep some kids amused for a while and be good for some holiday snaps.
The car park is £3 - I thought that was pretty shocking really, especially as I was on my own so it was adding a lot to the cost of my visit. However, the £3 ticket includes a sticker worth £2 that you can exchange for food and drink. I used my discount to get £2 off the guidebook, making it a much more reasonable £1.50.
Entry **** The last entries are at 5 pm - I had to run to beat the deadline so maybe it's a good thing that the weather stopped me loitering over the building. I would have been furious after parting with £3 for the car park if they hadn't let me in because there's ABSOLUTELY nothing else to do around The Deep.
Prices - Adults £8.00; OAPs/students £6.50; Children £6.00; family of 4 £25.00; family of 5 £30.00. Personally, I think that's a bit on the steep side. From looking at other reviews the price used to be £6.00 for adults and I think that's altogether more reasonable.
Off to see the Fish ***************** After paying, you walk along a corridor and take a lift or the stairs to the 3rd floor of the building. The tour then involves walking down a series of wide ramps and working your way from top to bottom. There's quite a lot of walking involved and if you are in a wheelchair, you might want to check your brakes before taking on the hairpin bends. I had the impression that part of the purpose of the ramps was to give the impression that the place was bigger than it really was.
I entered through a turnstile and right in front was a beautiful small tank of tiny box fish, and some green fellas that looked like a cross between a sea horse and a piece of grass. The chap at the turnstile came over to talk to me about the tank and I really enjoyed that personal touch, brief though it was. However, this was a nice tank and my hopes were high for the rest of the tour.
Then started the interminable ramps and the excessive noise. For goodness sakes, the sea is a pretty quite place, one of the benefits of diving is there are no mobile phones. And certainly not non-stop looped video screens telling me about the history of the earth. The first ramp is presented as an Earth Timeline with distance representing time since the world began. Oh boy, I'm so not interested in all of that stuff. I have a degree in geology and I don't need another 'big bang to present' model. All along the ramp are touch screens for the kids to play with, quizzes and video screens. It was empty when I was there but I could just picture thousands of school kids running back and forth, fiddling with all the displays. Where was the peace and quite I was seeking and more importantly, where were the fish?
The first big tank display was the Lagoon of Light - now this was a gem of a tank, full of all the things you'd expect to see in a coral lagoon - banner fish, tangs, damselfish, parrot fish, little spotted rays and some gorgeous little bonnethead sharks (a bit like hammer heads but with a shovel instead of a hammer). The lighting in this tank was bright and the colours were sharp and true.
According to the website, it's supposed to be possible to put your head into this tank through a bubble but if this was available, it wasn't obvious where or how.
Tucked in a corner near by the coral lagoon was something called the Discovery Corner. This wasn't open when I visited but apparently the small tanks were filled with creatures that the kids can touch and play with. They limit the 'stress' caused to the animals but having just a few sessions each day. Shame they don't think more about the stress to the humans!
More ramps, more video screens, more games and quizzes and I'm off to the big tank - the 'Endless Ocean'. Now the 'big tank' is the one thing that really makes or breaks a good aquarium. If you get a truly spectacular one, then I can forgive all the other annoyances. The viewing of the Endless Ocean tank is good - floor to ceiling glass walls give great visibility but that's hampered a bit by the glass being curved and slightly distorting. The tank was quite gloomy - I wondered if someone had turned down the lights at first. Everything was rather grey and poorly lit - so much so that big sharks could appear suddenly and I missed them a few times. The large rays down at the bottom of the tank could sometimes only be seen by flashes of the underside of their 'wings'.
What's in the Big Tank? ******************* Ten out of ten for the range of sharks and other 'big fish' - a rather lower score for the smaller stuff. There are a lot of rather dull grey and silver fish swimming around in shoals.
The sharks are not your little babies - these are big fellas and some have the sense of pre-historic menace that really attracts me to them. Whilst the white tip reef sharks are quite small and sleek, like sports cars, there are some big ugly ones in there that look like they've been hiding out in Loch Ness for a few million years. They have nurse sharks, tiger sharks, zebrasharks and some odd things like wobbegongs and the Green Sawfish. The Sawfish is more closely related to rays than sharks but looks like a squashed shark with a hedgetrimmer stuck on its nose. There are some big rays and some large morays as well. I think the tank is a bit over-crowded.
Other tanks ********** As with most big aquaria, there are a number of other sub-zone tanks around the centre. These include a 'twilight zone' which ought to contain lots of glowing luminous critters - I think I went wrong at that stage because all I could see were yet more video screens.
There's an excellent tank of cod that might make you think twice next time you go to the chippy. There's a cold water zone and displays of anemone clown fish, poisonous lion and scorpion fish and many others. I generally find these small displays quite interesting but there was nothing that really stuck in my mind.
The Submarine ************ Now maybe it's just because the video screens and noise were really getting to me by this stage, but I didn't explore this area. There is some kind of re-enactment where the kids can pretend to be piloting a submarine into the deep ocean. It all seemed a bit 'Blakes Seven' to me and I was really teed off with all the gimmicks by this stage so I marched off in search of more fish.
The Wow Factor ************* Every big aquarium needs a good 'Wow!' moment and it's usually delivered near the end. The Deep has two - neither of which is a 'megawow' but both will impress first time I'm sure. The first is a tunnel in the tank - it's quite a short one but it's effective. When I was in the tunnel some staff had just thrown in some food and there were three large sharks cuddled up to the glass looking for food. It was an excellent view. I would imagine that at busy times this would really get congested. Other aquaria I have visited (e.g. Blue Planet in Ellesmere Port, KL Aquarium) have moving walkways and longer tunnels and still have to heard people through to stop them blocking so this shorter tunnel looks like it would have problems. The final Wow is the 'great glass elevator' - my term, not theres - which actually rises up through the tank, stopping for a few seconds in the middle where you can be ignored by all the fish. There is apparently a long wait for this during the day but I breezed straight in at 5.30 with no delay.
Catering ******* There seem to be a lot of places to eat and drink but at 5.30 they were all closed. One of the restaurant areas gives you the opportunity to go up to the 4th floor and look out over the Humber - the brownest water in the universe, I should imagine. I spotted an indoor 'picnic' zone which seemed like a good idea because a day out for a family is a bit pricey and you might want to bring your sarnies.
Shop **** As you'd expect there's a big shop where you can stock up on all the cuddly stingrays and plastic shark pencil sharpeners you could ever need. I found it very easy to resist.
Overall Recommendation ********************* If you haven't been to a big aquarium and you aren't likely to fly off to one of the world leading ones then yes, you should go and have a look. If I were in the North and could get equally well to this or the Blue Planet at Ellesmere Port, I'd drive the other way down the M62 and head off to the Blue Planet for a better variety, less irritating gimmicks and an excellent shopping centre on the doorstep. If you are in the area - then definitely give it a look If you have kids, they'll probably love it. But for purist fish anoraks like me, this isn't one to return to.
Pros - lots of sharks, some nice small displays Cons - TOO NOISY, too much reliance on video screens, games and gimmicks and not enough fish, too kid-focused (I felt like I was on a school trip)
Advantages: fun, informative, interactive Disadvantages: car park charges
On the last day of the summer hols I took my two kids to The Deep. First and foremost, there is no fishy smell in the areas of Hull that people are likely to visit for fun! Now that that is out of the way, I'll describe my experience. The first thing we noticed was of course the car park. Three quid! I would have expected the car park to be free to visitors -- it's not like there was an attendant to look after your stuff! Living in Hull, I know the ... ...multi-storey car parks in the town centre. Prices there start at something like £2 for a couple of hours, and go up bit by bit the longer you stay. I noticed that for £2.70 you can park for up to 6 hours. There is an "all day" price as well but I can't remember it -- sorry. If all you're doing is visiting The Deep, you need about two to two-and-a-half hours to go around it, plus walking from and to the carpark. It only takes about 10 mins maximum ...
jenksy 11.09.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Deep - Hull
Advantages: Good family fun. Disadvantages: Aimed more at kids.
...entry tickets. The Deep is tauted as being one of the most spectacular aquariums in the world. I don't know if this is true or not - I've not visited many aquariums around the world. It is certainly an impressive sight, both internally & externally. Built right alongside the Humber estuary, the building is made to look like the prow of a ship - very fitting for the location & very modern looking. The website recommends taking a riverside walk around ... ...look while you're there, & the new footbridge across the river Hull takes you across to the city centre if you fancy a look around.
The Deep itself is more aimed at children, with many educational & fun tools to interact with on the way round. This was all a bit pointless to me, but I read the information given here & there in order to make more of my visit. There are several small tanks as you go along, and some impressively large tanks also. There ...
sambam000 20.06.2009
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Deep - Hull
Advantages: Fish, Fish and more fish Disadvantages: Long entrance queues.
We decided to visit the Deep last whilst on holiday in Yorkshire. It is situated on the Banks of the River Humber, which is in YORKSHIRE, no where near LONDON, as someone at Ciao thinks, my thanks to Silverback for pointing this out., anyway it's an area which is in the process of being built up. We travelled by car and although we could see the building has some trouble actually getting to it. However this was a year ago and there was lots of roadworks ... ...bus. Or you can use the Park and Ride that goes to the City Centre. The deep is a short walk away from here. A normal visit is meant to last around two hours so you could combine it with a shopping trip.
There is a car park at the Deep, costing £3. If you present this at the shop or cafe you will get a £2 discount.
The opening times are 10am to 6pm every day. It is recommended you visit in the afternoon as it is meant to be quieter but the day ...
LUNAH_C 12.06.2004 (17.05.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Deep - Hull
Advantages: Educational, inexpensive, amazing views of fish Disadvantages: Interactive displays difficult to access when busy
...a very long one, but The Deep is slowly changing this outdated image.
The Deep is Europe's largest "Submarium". No, I don't know what a submarium is either, but essentially it is a big aquarium. The building was designed by Norman Foster and is position on the junction of the River Hull and the Humber Estuary, some 15 minutes from the Humber Bridge and in the centre of the city of Hull.
From the outside the building has a striking design, appearing ... ...into the river junction. Parking is ample and a special footbridge has been constructed to allow easy access to the shopping and eateries of the city centre. A shuttle bus runs from the train station to the Deep every 15 minutes, it is easy to spot - it's purple and a had "The Deep" plastered all over it. The bus also makes stops in the city centre.
Entry is £6, I advise tickets to be bought in advance online or at the tourist information office ...
StedicUK 22.08.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of The Deep - Hull
Advantages: Excellent for adults and older kids Disadvantages: Difficult to get to by car
I have visited The Deep a couple of times now on short breaks up to Yorkshire and on each occasion have thoroughly enjoyed it.
I was a little intrigued the first time I visited by the fact that you went up a lift three floors but soon all was to be revealled....
The start of the 'tour' took you along long downward ramps showing you how life on the planet has evolved with a time line the whole way down. There were several 'stop off points' along ... ...the audio-narrative on the telephone like apparatus that you can get form reception for a small fee. There was also a lot of interactive things to do along the way from touchy-feely fossils to Deep Blue One where you could 'learn how to command a submarine' - something I wasn't very good at!!!
You start the 'fish watching' at the top of the endless ocean where you will see several species of shallow water fish from rays and sharks to coral that ...
DKtheDJ 20.11.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of The Deep - Hull
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Advantages: Interesting and lots of species to see Disadvantages: If your not interested in fish,it might not be so much fun 4u!!!
The Deep is based in Hull in Yorkshire right on the edge of the Humber Estuary. It opened in 2002 and is a charitable aquarium working towards raising public awareness of the threats to the fish, mammals and plants that live in the ocean and supports the marine conservation society.
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Surely it's about the fish? 
