The University of Hull was founded in 1927 as University College Hull, becoming a full university in 1954. It sits about 3 km north of the centre on Cottingham Road, a compact campus of red-brick interwar buildings and post-war additions. The Brynmor Jones Library is the architectural landmark — a 1959 modernist tower, refurbished in the 2010s, where Philip Larkin worked as librarian for nearly three decades.
The University Art Collection holds a strong selection of British art from 1890 to 1940 — Sickert, Camden Town School, Vorticists — displayed in the Brynmor Jones building. The campus is open and the gallery is free; a 20-minute bus from the centre, or 40 minutes on foot via Pearson Park.