Hull has always had a way of breeding its own kind of quiet revolution. Away from the usual northern clichés and well-trodden cultural narratives, the city’s most interesting work is often done by people who don’t wait for permission. For more than a decade, Browse Magazine has been one of those projects, a grassroots platform archiving Hull’s youth culture, counterculture and subcultures with stubborn consistency and DIY heart.
Now, founder Mike White is taking the biggest step in Browse’s history: transforming it into a Community Interest Company (CIC) and launching a dedicated multi-purpose cultural space in the city. It’s not just another venue, and Mike is very clear about that. It’s a hub, a home, and a long-awaited physical base for a movement that started with an iPhone, an empty bank account and a belief that Hull’s stories deserved better.
This is the story of how Browse is evolving, why the timing matters, and why Hull still has Mike’s heart after everything.
From Blog to Backbone: The Origin of Browse
To understand why this moment is so important, you have to go back to2014. Mike had just graduated in journalism, fresh from working withDJ Mag in Ibiza, and like a lot of young creatives, he came home to Hull asking the dreaded question:what now? He flicked on the TV and saw the announcement that Hull had securedUK City of Culture status. That was the spark. “Browse – what’s going on in Hull – that kind of platform for music, arts and culture, that triggered a movement in my brain,” he explains in our conversation.
Armed with zero pounds and a phone, he spent six months walking the city, embedding himself in music, arts, theatre, community projects, independent businesses and artists,documenting what they were doing, building relationships and slowly carving out a space online.
Browse started as a blog, then a WordPress site, with Mike writing everything himself. There were no marketing agencies, no budget, just organic graft. That work quietly stacked up. So much so that, when the City of Culture marketing team started searching for “Hull magazine”, “Hull arts”, “Hull events”, Browse dominated the first pages of Google.
That visibility changed everything. Mike got a call from Phil Batty, then corporate partnerships and media manager for Hull 2017. “We’ve seen your stuff online, we want to talk about being an independent media partner, but we need you to go into print.”
Mike had no money to print a magazine, so the City of Culture team commissioned Browse to produce four seasonal print issues aligned with their programme. That support didn’t just legitimise the project, it pushed Browse from blog to print partner, working alongside Hull 2017 and the BBC. “When people talk about legacy from City of Culture,” Mike says, “if there’s one project that’s still got a legacy and is now going on to do better things, it’s got to be Browse.”
Why Become a CIC – and Why Now?
Fast forward a decade. Browse has weathered rising costs, changing markets and post-COVID uncertainty. Mike has promoted countless events, consulted for venues, written launch plans, DJed, programmed spaces and continually put others first.
But somewhere along the line, that flexibility became a problem. “Two years ago I sat down and went: where’s the magazine going? It was going a bit stale. I’d been doing all this other stuff, DJ work, programming venues, writing plans – and I realised it had diluted where Browse should be now.”
People loved what he did, but when venues hit a couple of bad weekends, they’d want a change in direction. Mike would push for a long-term vision; they’d understandably focus on short-term takings. Things would end, venues would close, and Browse would be left without a solid base. “I just came to a head after 10 years and thought: I need to be a bit selfish,” he admits. “We need to stop being one-dimensional – just a free magazine asking for advertising – and create more revenue streams and our own ecosystem.”
The Community Interest Company model was the natural next step. In November 2023, Mike received a grant from Hull City Council to work with consultants (including people involved in York’s Spark project) on turning Browse into a CIC properly, from governance to financial liabilities.
The idea was simple but powerful: bring everything under one umbrella. The magazine, the events and the community work all become part of a non-profit structure where every penny is reinvested into the space and the people involved. “We’ve always been a community interest project,” Mike says. “The CIC just formalises what we’ve been doing for years.”
A Space That Sends the Elevator Back Down
The CIC isn’t just a line on Companies House. It’s being anchored in a physical space in Hull, something Browse has never had before.
Mike is very clear that this is not about competing with existing venues. “We’re not going to be another venue in competition with people,” he stresses. “We’re a cultural hub for creative business and enterprise to plug into.”
Hull’s city centre, he says, has plenty of great spaces, but they’re often too big and too expensive for small, emerging creatives or micro-businesses. Mike knows that reality first-hand. Browse started when someone gave him a desk in a corner and the space to try something. “I want to send the elevator back down,” he says. “Open this space up for people to plug into it.”
The new Browse space is being launched in phases. Phase one focuses on activating the event space upstairs: a bar, DJ booth and adaptable stage that can shape-shift depending on what’s happening.
The vision is broad but intentional. Local DJ promoters and brands will have a home. There’ll be live acoustic sessions with a “living room” feel, potentially broadcast online as a Hull take on a Tiny Desk-style series. The room can host screenings, independent markets, community yoga and corporate events. There is a strong emphasis on health and wellbeing too, particularly mental health support for creatives delivered in an informal, accessible environment. Exhibitions will be a key strand, including the launch weekend’s Hull City heritage show with photographerDavy Jones (@hullcityonfilm) and retro kit curator Les (Motherby) from Hull City Kits.
Alongside financial donations, the project has already attracted around£20,000 of in-kind supportfrom businesses like Keepmoat, Eddie Beedle’s fabrication outfit, Paul East and West Building Supplies, as well as volunteers who’ve spent evenings and weekends lifting, painting, wiring and building.
It hasn’t been smooth. A major social investment package – a mix of loan and grant intended to refit the space and cover overheads for the first six months – was submitted in January with an eight-week turnaround. A system overhaul meant applications, including Browse’s, weren’t processed. The funding is still “agreed in principle”, but the team now has to provide extra evidence and proof of concept, which is part of why they’ve launched a crowdfunder and are hustling to get the doors open.
Still, the chaos hasn’t dented the vision: a hub that can sustain the magazine, platform new voices and give Hull’s creatives a flexible, affordable place to work, perform and gather.
The Human Cost: Mental Health, Self-Doubt and Graft
It’s easy to romanticise community projects. What you don’t always see is the person in the background working factory shifts just to keep the lights on. “I’ve never paid myself a consistent wage from Browse,” Mike says. “The artists, writers, anyone involved gets paid before I do.”
To keep Browse alive, he’s pivoted into freelance work, DJ gigs and, when needed, factory jobs to cover his own living costs. That sacrifice has come with a mental health toll. “On the surface, I’m this social person, this doer,” he admits. “But there’ve been dark times, man. Very dark times. Imposter syndrome. Wondering where the next penny is coming from. Do I give up?”
What’s kept him going is a sense of purpose. “If I see other people doing well from my actions, it makes me feel better,” he says. “But there has to be a balance now between being unselfish and selfish, for this concept to work.”
That balance is starting to show in tangible ways. Browse has just taken on two paid work placements throughGoodwin Trust– including a Paris-born graphic designer who’s been in Hull for two years without work and is now on track to become Browse’s full-time designer, and a hospitality assistant working across the events setup and future coffee shop.
It’s the same ethos as always – platform others, create stepping stones – but now built on more intentional business thinking. “I’ve had to learn the business side, how to leverage those skills,” Mike says. “We’re moving into a realm where we’re non-profit, but we still have to be a business. Things have to get paid for.”
What Hull Means to Mike White
Mike has lived and worked across Europe, but Hull keeps pulling him back. Ask him what he loves about it and the answer is layered.
On a practical level, it’s affordable. “If you’re a creative or a startup, it’s cheap to live, you’ve got the headroom to be creative – if you set it up right,” he says.
There’s also something about Hull’s access to culture that he thinks people overlook: free museums, a proactive cultural strategy from Hull City Council and a music scene that punches well above its weight.
He points to Humber Street Sesh, a major festival on the city’s marina, heavily stacked with local acts, selling out year after year – as proof of what’s possible when a city backs its own.
But if you really want to get Mike going, talk about electronic music. “The city’s electronic music scene, the house music, the DJs – it’s still, from what I see, the most participated and engaged genre in the city, and it’s under-acknowledged,” he says.
The problem, in his eyes, is infrastructure. Unlike live bands, DJs and producers haven’t had a consistent home or ecosystem in Hull. Part of the new space’s mission is to change that. There will be DJ workshops, electronic music production sessions and pop-up events, and a specific focus on female DJs and underrepresented groups, making the space genuinely safe and welcoming.
He namechecks local legendSteve Cobby (Fila Brazillia) as an example of how deep Hull’s electronic credentials run, and points out that other cities, like Leeds, have built entire cultural identities around club and electronic music. “Other cities treat it like a religion,” he says. “We’ve got an opportunity in Hull right now, especially with all the maritime and tourism projects. We need to start identifying what our strengths actually are.”
At the core, though, what Mike loves most about Hull is its people.
The volunteers who turn up with paintbrushes. The businesses who donate materials. The donors who chip into a crowdfunder. The friends, like his partner, who’ve ridden out two years of stop-start uncertainty. And even the people he’s clashed with. “I’d like to thank the people I’ve disagreed with too,” he says. “I’ve failed a lot. Those lessons are going to help make this space sustainable and viable.”
He pauses, visibly emotional at points in our conversation, before trying to summarise what their support means. “From the bottom of my heart, I really appreciate everybody – the donors, the volunteers, the people who’ve believed in us for 12 years, even when we haven’t been consistently in print. It’s flattering that people still believe in Browse. And everyone who’s helped will be remunerated – whether that’s with beers, coffee, or more opportunities in the space.”
Then he adds something simple but telling: “There aren’t many cities in the UK left that have a magazine like Browse. That’s special. And it’s not just for me, it’s for Hull.”
The Next Chapter
The phase one launch weekend for the new space is just the beginning. There’ll be DJs, community radio fromVenn Radio, football on the big screen, exhibitions, secret guests and a chance for people to experience the building as it starts its new life.
After that, the events calendar opens up. Local organisers, community groups, bands, DJs, wellbeing practitioners and creatives will be able to plug into the space and shape what it becomes.
Further down the line, phase two will bring a coffee shop, co-working space and deeper community programming, a daily heartbeat to go with the big weekends.
For Mike, Browse has always been about capturing “what’s going on in Hull.” Now, for the first time, it has a physical address – and a structure designed to outlive any single funding cycle, trend or hype wave.
It’s been a long, messy, emotional road to get here. But if Hull is defined by anything, it’s people who just get on and do it. Browse, and this new space, feel like a natural extension of that.