We have moved ...

...across the street. Unless you've been an eremite of the old persuasion you will be aware of certain recent failings in the 'banking system'. Here the Bradford & Bingley stands empty; its business taken over by Santander has been moved to the old Alliance & Leicester. All that remains is a ghostly stain ... a monument to greed and stupidity.

Alignment

Around the corner from the Charterhouse is Bourne Street which has nothing much to boast about other than a view of  this alignment of columns and towers. From left to right: the Wilberforce monument, the spire of St Mary, Lowgate, the old Records Office and finally the Guildhall.

Charterhouse Reflections

 

Surrounded by the decay and demise of Hull's riverside industries, is an oasis of calm and tranquillity. This is the Charterhouse built by Sir Michael de la Pole in 1384 to house "13 poor men and 13 poor women, feeble or old". The original house was knocked down during the war, not the last war, but the Civil War in 1643 or thereabouts. It was rebuilt, knocked down and rebuilt as you see it in 1780. It is still a home for elderly with 34 apartments.

The poet and MP for Hull, Andrew Marvell lived here as his dad was master of the Charterhouse from 1624 to1640.

Drink in Moderation ....

 or else feel ....

Two practically adjacent watering holes on Carr lane.

Too good to last

Toogood Street has no buildings now and serves little purpose as it runs along the side of  land drain. In fact so useless is it that ten years ago the council applied to have it stopped up on the ground that it is no longer necessary for public use! This seems a bit of a sad ending for such a wonderfully named street.

The strange looking device is connected with clearing out  the drain which enters the river Hull nearby. 

Salvage

This sign is on the doors of the old Trinity House Boathouse on Tower Street ( here ).

Margaret Moxon Way

Here is the crossing from the bus station to the shopping centre. Some of the good people of Hull like to play a game of chicken with the buses entering and leaving the station off to the right of this picture.
I post this because the other day I was idly browsing through Hull in the virtual world that is Google Earth when I came across Margaret Moxon Way. I'd never heard of it. Turns out when the new bus/rail station was built those who decide these things also changed the name of the road; they'd had a competition to come up with a suitable name and apparently Maggie Moxon got the nod. I had to use a well known search engine to find out just who this lady was; a missionary to Sierra Leone and New Zealand no less. So now you know more than the local paper as it still reports the frequent accidents at this crossing as happening on Collier Street.

 

It's Somtimes Ever So Slightly Dull In Hull

Many years ago the council had a slogan to attract visitors and business; "It's never dull in Hull". I have to tell you they lied, they lied. Here a drilling rig has parked up on the Humber and there are some red lights in the foreground; even so it's all a bit dreary ....

No Left Turn?

Not until the next election perhaps.

The Half-Tide Basin

Some final shots showing the development around the Half-Tide basin. Below the outer half of the basin with its dredged channel still showing.

 More housing and below the view they get from their window.

Zen and the art of fishing

This is the Hartley Bridge over the exit from the Half-Tide Basin that led to the dock itself, it carried both road and rail traffic but now it's just decorative. I don't think these chaps caught anything apart from a cold.

Victoria Dock Village

Victoria dock was to the east of the river Hull and opened in 1850 closing in 1970. The dock itself was filled in and the land was sold for development and work started in 1987 to build the Victoria Dock Village. I haven't been round these parts for over twenty years (it's a bit out of the way!) when it was still being built and it was, frankly, a bit of a mess. Now it's done and beginning to mature though I wouldn't like to live there; it was eerily deserted when I was there.
This is part of the Half-Tide Basin which was added to the dock to allows ships to enter the dock on the half-tide thus extending the time the dock was open for business. In 1989 when the redevelopment took place this had to be dredged as it had silted up to the level of the dock walls!

Where there's brass there's muck ...

...or so it seems. I doubt any amount of elbow grease will polish up the image of this place.

The White Hart

This is not to be confused with Ye Olde White Harte, I suppose by rights it should be called the Not So Old White Hart. It's on Alfred Gelder Street and not too far from the ancient pub. Give it full marks for trying to at least look old.

Since we're on this street I suppose I should mention Alfred Gelder, an architect who seems to have designed most of Hull, from Queens Gardens to numerous methodist chapels even a local chain of shops and several pubs. On just about every main road you'll find something this guy has had a hand in. I don't think he built this one though.

Playing with boats

HMS Explorer, often to be found moored in the marina, is a patrol and training vessel of the British Royal Navy at least that's what Wikipedia tells me. It's really a fancy recruiting toy to get university students interested in taking the Queen's shilling or whatever the going rate is these days. Used to be they pressed ganged 'em now its flash motorboats...

Protecting the East

 

 So to east Hull and a remnant of 16th & 17th century defense spending. This is nearly all that remains of a massive citadel that protected the approaches to Hull from attack by whoever the English government had annoyed at the time (probably most of Europe). There is a blue plaque to tell the passing stranger all about it; unfortunately it's so high up that it's almost unreadable. I had to take a photo just to find out what it said. This stump sits in the middle of a large modern housing estate.

Some of the citadel's demolition material was used to create the charmingly named Khyber Pass feature ( from a futile intrusion by Victorian Britain into Afghanistan, all part of the never ending great game )  in East Park. It's just a glorified rockery really. Sic transit, as they often say in these parts.

Hull Art

It was in June 2010 that I posted about this work by Jimmy Boyle called Mankind Under Threat. At the time I ranted a bit about how the bars had been removed presumably by Hull City Council. I emailed the Council and complained but that did no good; so I emailed the company that sponsored the project but I got no reply. Well I don't know if was my moaning that did the trick but the bars are back. Let's hope the metal thieves don't find out about them.

I'd like to thank a local group called Hull Art, in particular Tim Everett, for alerting me to this pleasant turn of events.

A sad tale

For the past 6 weeks or so a young man has been missing. He was last seen on this bridge and despite massive searches and a huge number of posters he was not found. On Saturday a body was found in the Humber about 8 miles upstream, the searching is over. These balloons and flowers are just a portion, the whole bridge is covered in these tributes.

Taken by Margot K Juby

In a posting last year I mentioned that this was an area noted for people falling into the river and that fencing had been suggested. In the manner of closing the stable door after the horse is running down the street guess what? Yup, a fence is being put up.

We fix Mac's

I do like a good grocer's apostrophe; this one is on Anlaby Road. I found a Flickr group devoted to this grammatical feature here.

 

Waiting for the little green man

The wait to cross this road is considerably shorter than the wait for improvements to traffic flow on Hull's busiest road. The improvements do not even figure on the list of major road projects approved by the Department for Transport. 2015 is the earliest date we can expect work to begin on Castle Street but I'm thinking it might never happen.  So until then we'll just have to push the button and wait for the signal.

Means of escape

The near train will take you to Bridlington; the far train goes to London, the others to all points in between.

Contre-jour

Here's the Myton bridge on a sunny day last week. The bridge can be lifted to allow shipping to pass underneath but that hardly ever happens these days.

We see her sore oppressed

It's difficult to imagine now but Hull was once a centre of Methodism with well over a hundred chapels. This imposing building, the impressively named George Lamb Memorial Chapel on Lambert Street, was put up in 1894 for the Primitive Methodist Connexion [ ? ]. Fashions change and faiths dwindle and so it was that the last service here was on Good Friday 1994. So for eighteen years the congregation has consisted mainly of the feathered brethren. You will no doubt not be surprised to learn that there were plans to convert to flats nor that these plans have come to naught. The planning permission was extended in 2010 but I would advise against holding your breath in anticipation.

The Minerva

In the thirty or so years I've lived in Hull the Minerva has been written off at least half a dozens times. The last time was 3 or 4 years ago when a mock funeral was held to 'celebrate' its 'final' closure. But you can't keep a good pub shut for long and it reopened to all fine ale enthusiasts delight. At one time the pub brewed its own beer but that has now stopped, the sign saying Minerva Brewery is all that remains. The pub is right next to the Marina on the riverside. It has the smallest snug in the land, fits two people!

Opening soon ...

...well May is fairly soon isn't it? This is promised to be a new concept (new to Hull anyway) of  "theatre-style cooking" with chefs cooking meals before a captivated (or captive) audience of diners. With so many eating places struggling I suppose a new gimmick might pull in the punters. This is a refurbishment of an existing restaurant in the Hessle Gate Building on Humber dock. The building was constructed in 1884 hence the name. The obligatory website is here.

So now you know as much as I do

I've passed this thing many times and not been bothered to find out exactly what it was until I took a couple of photos and decided to put an end to my ignorance. I'd guessed it was an engine of some kind, turns out it's a horizontal steam engine and was used to haul ships out of the Victoria Dock for repairs and so on. Somehow it managed to find its way (no doubt under its own steam) to the side of the Humber dock where it's grown a protective glass cover. Clever things these steam engines.

The link (here) tells you as much as you could possibly want to know.

Still building that old bridge

A big step forward in the making of this bridge happened in the last week or so when the 120 ton swinging arm was lifted into place. You can't see much in this foreshortened image so I crossed over the Myton bridge and took a shot from the other side of the river. To me it looks like a giant fish, can't quite see what that fin attachment is supposed to do but no doubt all will be revealed. The local paper confidently states the bridge will open in May so we'll just have to be patient a little longer ....

Renewables 2

Just downstream from the Deep and 60 yards offshore stands this dinky tidal power generator supplying 30-40% of the electricity used by the submarium. This is the Neptune Proteus Tidal Generator and represents a significant step forward in utilising the power of the Humber. Obviously it's a prototype but I expect that we'll see many more and bigger versions as tidal power is clean and, unlike the wind, predictable. Depending on who you believe the tides could be supplying 10-20% of UK power and the Humber, because of its sheer size and large tidal range, will play a major part in that. I'll stop now this is beginning to sound like a sales pitch.

Deep Reflection

Couldn't resist this reflection of the Deep in the murky brown waters and mud of the river Hull.

New Homes for Old

Former students of Hull University probably won't recognise this as their old hall of residence, Cleminson Hall on Thwaite Street, Cottingham. After standing empty for eight years, and after a complex planning inquiry costing thousands, the site has been partly demolished and new homes are being built. The original old house is still standing and presumably has some conservation order on it, however inside it's a mess (see here). I suspect some 'accident' will befall it requiring its demolition and then more homes can be built, but then I'm just an old cynic as you must know by now.

Here's a picture of the old house I took from the top of a bus.

Renewables

I've shown the Arc building on Blanket Row before (here) but as this month's theme for City Daily Photo is electricity I thought this was a suitable shot. Here they're attempting to harness the sun and the wind to generate the sparky stuff. I've a feeling this array is more for decoration than serious generation.

You can see what others made of  this electric theme by clicking here .