The Deep

Terry Farrell designed the building, opened in 2002 on Sammy's Point where the River Hull meets the Humber, as a wedge of glass and aluminium tilting out over the water like a geological form breaking the surface. Inside, the main tank, Endless Oceans, holds around two and a half million litres at ten metres deep, with sand tiger sharks, rays and green sawfish, and a glass lift runs up through the water so visitors rise inside the tank. The Deep is a registered charity funding marine conservation and research, and it keeps and breeds Gentoo penguins in a cold room with an underwater viewing window. The Lagoon of Light holds jellyfish and reef species. A viewing platform on the roof looks along the Humber to the bridge.

What you actually see

• The glass lift - a lift running up through a ten-metre-deep shark tank.
• Endless Oceans - two and a half million litres with sawfish and sand tigers.
• The Gentoo penguins - a bred colony with underwater viewing.
• The Farrell building - a wedge of glass tilted out over the Humber.

When to go

Year-round; it is entirely indoors and busiest in school holidays and on wet days. Tickets last a year. Feeding and dive talks run to a daily timetable posted at the entrance.

Honest expectations

It is compact for the ticket price and can be walked in around two hours. The lift is small and queues form. School groups fill the tunnels on weekday mornings in term time.

Nearby

Hull's Old Town and the Museum Quarter are a short walk; the Humber Bridge lies west.