The Story Behind Hull’s “Tenfoots”
Names are funny things. Sometimes they’re poetic, sometimes mysterious, sometimes downright confusing. And then there are the names that feel so ordinary to the locals that they forget how strange they sound to everyone else. If you’ve ever spent time in Kingston upon Hull or the surrounding East Yorkshire villages, you may have come across one such word: tenfoot.
To the uninitiated, it’s a puzzling term. A ten-foot what? A unit of something? Don't ya mean Bigfoot? No—a tenfoot is a type of back alley. But as with most local dialect words, the story doesn’t end there.
So… why “tenfoot”?
The simplest explanation is often the right one, and in this case, it’s literal. A tenfoot is traditionally a ten-foot-wide (approximate!) passageway running behind houses, primarily in older residential areas of Hull and the East Riding. These alleys were built to allow access to the rear of properties—originally for horses, carts, and later for service vehicles or garages.
Over time, “ten-foot” morphed into one word—tenfoot. Today, you'll hear it used casually in conversation: “Just leave the bins in the tenfoot.”
More than just a place to wheel your bins
If you grew up anywhere near one, a tenfoot wasn’t just functional—it was part of your childhood ecosystem:
• Shortcut to school
• Bike-riding HQ
• A place for teenage shenanigans
• The slightly dodgy path you sprinted down after dark
Even now, they’re still an everyday part of life in Hull—some gated, some pristine, some gloriously chaotic.
A word woven into identity
Dialects often preserve fragments of a place’s history. The word tenfoot tells us about Hull’s development: rows of terraced houses, working-class neighbourhoods, and the functional logic built into their planning. And, as with many regional words, it gives the city a touch of character—something residents recognise instantly and outsiders find charmingly unusual.
Visitors may ask, “Why not just call it an alley?” But that misses the point. Words like tenfoot aren’t arbitrary; they reflect the way people have lived, built, and communicated for generations.
So, what’s in a name?
Well, quite a lot. The humble tenfoot is a reminder that even mundane parts of our urban environment can carry unique local stories. “So, the next time you wander through a tenfoot—or hear someone mention one—you’re stepping through a small but meaningful piece of urban history. A back alley with a name, and a name that means more than it first seems.”
Team tenfoot
#fabricofthecity
Identity isn't given - it's created
For more info on tenfoot's have a gander at:
Curiosity Hull
BBC - Inside the Hull tenfoots of childhood