Oriel Chambers, Kingston upon Hull

Oriel Chambers is a Grade II listed building which, since 2006, has housed the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation.

[2] The site of Oriel Chambers lies within a much older tenement on the east side of the High Street, in the heart of the historic core of the Old Town of Hull.

By 1448 this holding had become one messuage and three tenements, whilst at the Lowgate (Marketgate) end of the property, a chamber and a hospice were erected to serve as a hospital.

The 1853 OS map shows a large building on the site prior to the construction of Oriel Chambers.

[2] In 2000 an excavation was carried out by Humber Field Archaeology, to the south-east of Oriel Chambers and immediately to the north of Chapel Lane Staith.

[2] Since 2006, Oriel Chambers has been home to the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, which acts as a research centre for academics in conjunction with the University of Hull.

The institute was opened in advance of celebrations marking the bicentenary of the Slave Trade Act 1807 which, through former Member of Parliament and major abolitionist movement figure William Wilberforce, the city of Hull has strong links to.

It also aims to foster links with other universities worldwide, including prestigious American institutions such as Yale, Harvard and Stanford.

[3] As part of the University of Hull, the institute often holds public lectures on the subject of both historical and contemporary slavery, including the annual Alderman Sydney Smith lecture,[5] so named after the former Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull South West, Sydney Smith.

[6] In 2015 it was announced that the institute had been awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education for its 'research applied in combating modern forms of slavery'.