The New Murrey and Blue blog

It seems that a Hull pub stands on a historically important site because many centuries ago, the building on the corner of Lowgate and Alfred Gelder Street in the city centre replaced a certain Suffolk Palace, which once belonged to King Henry VIII.

However, of much more interest to us than the Tudor monarch is the site’s original connection to the de la Pole family. This is going back some 700 years, when William de la Pole was the first mayor of Hull. He was so wealthy he could lend vast amounts of money to pay for England’s various wars. His statue stands on the Pier. As we know, his descendants became the Earls and Dukes of Suffolk. And the eldest son of one of the dukes, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, became the believed heir of Richard III.

But it was Michael de la Pole, the son of the first mayor of Hull, who became an important advisor for Richard II. He it was who began to enlarge his father’s manor house into Suffolk Palace.

To read more about Suffolk Palace, go here.