Am I not a Man and a Brother?

I know very little about this statue, who made it or when. Clearly  it's related in some way to the abolitionist medallion made by Wedgewood entitled "Am I not a Man and a Brother". It is to be found in the garden of Wilberforce House.

Museum reflections

The Guildhall and Law Courts reflected in the Transport Museum's specially darkened windows. One day I might actually go inside.

Angels Old and New

 The Angel on Butcher Row, Beverley has changed its sign. The new one is above, the old below. I think I prefer the old one.

Cottingham fashion week

The latest in equine garb on display showing the traditional through to the more risqué ...

Beverley Station

This Grade2 listed station was built in 1846. It's not the busiest place on the rail network with only two trains an hour going north and the same number heading south.
At one time you could catch trains to York from here but that line was closed by the infamous Beeching axe. There were plans to reopen the York branch line but that was before the banks stole all our money. 

Starburst

I believe that you can buy lens filters to produce a starburst effect but just pointing the camera at the sun through trees seems to work just as well. This was taken on the Westwood Beverley.

Warehouse Living

A Victorian riverside warehouse has been converted into apartments. I'm not sure I would like to live here considering that it is next door to the North Bridge (below) a busy connection between west and east Hull.

Big yellow crane

There has been shipbuilding on the Hull for centuries. The Bounty, of mutiny fame, was built by a Hull firm. This old crane and a couple of silting up docks are all that now remain of that industry.

Stained Glass

Leif Hagen asked for a peek inside Beverley Minster but as I don't have any shots from there this will have to do. Last year I posted some shots from inside the local church. Here are some more. If I've got my iconography right the top one is Mary and Jesus; the lower one is Elizabeth and John the Baptist, but I may well be wrong about this.

Rooftop view

The eastern end of Beverley Minster.

Yellow and blue

This is a bridge across an old dry dock or shipyard entrance on the banks of the River Hull. The dry dock is now thoroughly silted up as you can see below.

Snowdrop 2

The Blejan Eyhre under repair at Bridlington in May last year. The name translates from the Cornish as Snowdrop. Unfortunately in August the ship caught fire and sank 17 miles east of Flamborough Head; both crew members were saved.

It's that time of year

Photo by Margot K. Juby

In the paper today it mentioned that it is now snowdrop season, this is news for people who obviously don't get out much. So, for that same bunch of people, here are some snowdrops. There are obsessives (galanthophiles) who collect these small flowers, personally I'm not that impressed.
For those of you still under snow and frost your snowdrop time will no doubt come.

Clarence Flour Mills

If you close your eyes and hold your breath then this 1950s flour mill will turn into a 21st century hotel and super-dooper development, with permission for a casino (let joy be unconfined). This monumental building is next door to the Drypool bridge that I bored you with the other day. OK you can breathe now ...

Spes Super Sydera

Hope above the stars, in case you were wondering; the motto of Trinity House School. So what is this rather ornate crest doing on a decrepit old building that is slowly sinking into the river? A bit of research reveals that this is the old buoy shed used by Trinity House who are responsible for navigation and lighthouses around the coast of the UK. It's a grade 2 listed (listing?) building put up in 1901 now used appropriately, given its precarious position, by a diving company. The swan-necked crane was presumably used for lifting old buoys out of the river.

Drypool Bridge, Hull

The Drypool bridge was built in 1961 and replaced a much smaller bridge. It is designed to lift to allow river traffic to pass under; fortunately for road traffic this happens infrequently these days. You can appreciate that when the river bridges are under repair Hull's cross town traffic grinds to a halt.

For those with an engineering interest this is a bascule bridge; you can see an animation of how it works here.

Arctic Corsair

Moored behind the Museums Quarter is the Arctic Corsair, a trawler from Hull's fishing fleet of the 60s and 70s. It's now a museum piece and you can clamber on board and have good look round though on the day I was here it was locked up.
You read more about this ship here and also here. 

Riverside

This is the riverside walk behind the museums.

Half a bridge

The new bridge is still unbuilt and if today's lack of activity is anything to go by it will remain that way. Still the river mud held some some nice reflections.

Courts of Law

If you get caught doing something you shouldn't then you might end up having to appear in this building to account for your actions. This is the Combined Court building on Lowgate housing the County and Crown courts. I wonder if there is a special court for designers of ugly modern buildings?

For Sale

Ok, not this tree exactly, but if the vindictive idealogues who have taken over the governance of the state have their way, then publicly owned forests and woodlands would be sold off  to the highest bidder. No other civilised country in the world acts in this spiteful way. Needless to say this policy is as popular as clap in a whorehouse, but will they listen to the howls of protest or do they have beans in their ears?

Grandstand View

At the northern edge of Beverley Westwood is the racecourse. It's a mile and three furlong course for flat races. As the Westwood is common land you can wander across the racecourse as you wish; just watch out for galloping nags. You do have to pay to get into the stands.The first races this year are in April. There's a website here.

"Half-formed theatre company seeks other half"

Next door to the blue cone music centre that I showed you yesterday is the new Hull Truck theatre. It replaces the old tin shed on Spring Street, shown below. This new place cost £15 million (the old one £2.50!) and has all the trimmings that you would expect for such expenditure.
Hull Truck started in 1971 following an ad (see title) in Time Out magazine placed by an out of work actor called actor Mike Bradwell. The company's success rested on producing plays relevant to the audiences of Hull. Pandering to the lowest common denominator is not necessarily a good thing; you can have too many gritty realistic plays (one would be too many, in my view).
 The move to the new premises was followed by the recession which has not helped finances and the theatre will struggle, make that is struggling. No doubt there will be appeals for more public money to be spent on this place and no doubt more will be spent. Hmmm.

As always there's a website, it's here.

(Photo taken by  Keith D. )

Conic Section

Yesterday's staircase pops out of the top of this sliced blue cone. This is the Albemarle Music Centre  constructed to replace a plain brick building of such little note that hardly anyone can remember what it looked like. It's all part of the general development of Ferensway that includes the St Stephens shopping centre, a hotel and a theatre which I'll show tomorrow.
This is where the talented youths of the East Riding go to practice and play their instruments. The centre has two large rehearsal spaces and teaching rooms for the 16 Hull music ensembles as well as rehearsal space for the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra and the Yorkshire Young Musicians. It cost £3 million and opened in 2007.
Chris Hall of Holder Mathias Architects said: “The Albemarle Music Centre is a jewel in the St Stephen’s scheme. We have worked alongside the City of Hull and our client, ING Real Estate Development to create a building that will serve schools in the area well, and be something of which the people of Hull will be proud.” But then I guess he would say something along those lines. 

Spiral Staircase

After a few old and derelict buildings here's a new building, well at least the fire escape from a new building. I'll show you the building itself tomorrow.

Big apple

Around the corner from the Albert Hall stands yet another piece of dereliction and decay. I show you all the best bits of Hull. This is the New York. It was a thriving dive of a place until, as I recall, the early 1990s. It is now as you see it broken and unloved.
I mentioned when I posted about the Albert Hall that there were rumours of redevelopment. My researches have found that, indeed, planning permission for a brand new hotel to be called the Park was granted in 2008.  This would involve demolishing this whole block; I can't honestly say that I'll miss this particular building.

Picture Houses

This view has two of Hull's old cinemas. The Tower which I showed you a few days ago and the Regent which was built in 1910 and was open until 1978. The Regent is now a pub called Horners.
The archway is a side entrance to Paragon station. After taking this picture I noticed lots of signs threatening prosecution for trespassing on railway property so I left. 

Princes Quay Fountain

I had totally forgotten the date so when I discovered it was a new month I had to hunt down a fountain picture for today's theme picture. I took this in May last year; it has a nice rainbow in it.


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