This area of Hull has seen its fortunes fluctuate wildly over the years.

At one time it was at the heart of a working port; sandwiched between the busy Humber Dock (now the Marina) on one side, and the hive of activity that was the River Hull on the other. Victoria Pier itself was the terminus for the Humber Ferries, the only way to avoid the sixty-mile-plus road trip via Goole.

But the Port went into decline. When I first saw Humber Dock in the mid-70s it was closed and derelict (and, as it happens, frozen). A little later the Humber Bridge opened and the ferries went to be tourist attractions on other people's waterfronts; and you got the feeling Hull had turned its back on the river, and on Victoria Pier in particular.

The eighties saw another change of direction. Hull built its "Southern Bypass" (which always seemed a neat idea for a city on the north bank of a river). And along came someone with a proposal for a marina... This must have taken as much selling as did Monsieur Eiffel's bright idea in Paris a century or so earlier. It was every bit as much a leap of the imagination.

Parts of this area have changed out of all recognition - for the better - over the past twenty years. Other parts, especially near the River Hull, seem caught between pressures for improvement and pressures for continuing decline. And in the middle, now oddly out of place so close to the marina, is the thriving fruit market.

This area is also well worth visiting for its pubs. These range from the really excellent Minerva to, just around the corner, the Cask & Cutter, a friendly traditional local. The area has seen two fairly recent additions in the Baltic Wharf, an impressive warehouse conversion that is also, unfortunately, a real-ale-free zone: and the Heritage, which opened in December 1996.