Poem 25

Long before all this City of Culture malarky the river Hull had its own 'poems' .... This rusty old barge has been moored here by itself for years or so it seems, it was there three and half years ago when I posted this. I came across a picture of Poem 15 here, part of a site that has hundreds of images of Hull's old harbour filled with barges which, if you're interested, you can find here. 

The Weekend in Black and White is here

Old Leaky

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the dry dock that wasn't, erm, very dry.  Those old lock gate have sprung a leak and the Humber is finding its way back in. Strangely whoever owns this place is pumping out water 24/7 while the high tide is simply returning the favour, it all seems a bit futile. Speaking of pointless activities I took a short (40 seconds) video of the in rushing water.

Take the Hull Train

It seems Hull is to have its very own land train. Here it is parked up just off High Street. This colourful addition to the city scene is to take people around the city from the Deep past the Marina and Old Town finishing off at Queen Victoria Square; the exact route has yet to be determined. Personally I'd rather walk but then I'd miss the alternative history of Hull that the enterprising owner promises he will be telling his passengers.

Bridlington Visitor

Here's something a little different; a knot on Bridlington's north beach. There's some old tale about these birds being named after King Canute who, as you know, tried to stop the tide coming in and got his feet wet for his troubles or maybe he was named after the birds. I don't know, it doesn't matter all that much. These birds don't breed in this country but thousands fly in for the worms and such like on our shores every Winter.

Dunswell Road and Creyke Beck

Dunswell Road runs north of Cottingham, there's little of interest on this road, some new housing and a caravan factory that may have closed down for all I know and a few ducks on horseback. The beck also has little going for it except that it gives its name to the Creyke Beck electricity substation whose pylons dominate the land between Cottingham and Beverley. In urban Hull becks and drains like this have been culverted and covered in grass and the only sign of what was there are the ground down stubs of the concrete posts at regular intervals. In rural East Riding they seem to like a more natural approach which, while it may be prettier, is probably an insurance nightmare.

Stepping Up

Blanket Row

This is the oddly named Blanket Row near the Arc buildings. The building with the windows used to be a Post Office, if my memory serves me right, but it's empty now and behind that wall lies an empty space. The rest of the street is made up mainly of parking lots, some of which are no longer in use and at the other end there are a few warehouses. It's a place that could use a bit of regeneration.
If you follow the link on the advertisement you come across a group calling itself Hullbondholders. It's a collection of 190 companies and individuals who have paid to promote Hull and all things Hull. Now I'm sure they do a magnificent job in this respect with their networking and so on. What struck me as odd, however, was the make up of this group; so many law firms, accountants, media types, communications specialists (?), business coaches (???) and businesses that help other businesses find places to do business and so on and so forth. It's a whole eco-sphere of creatures, call them entrepreneurs if you must, making a living from each other's existence but seemingly not actually producing anything tangible at the end of the day. Maybe I'm missing something but whatever it is they are doing none of them seem to want to step up and regenerate Blanket Row any time soon.

Puddle tree

Snuff Mill Lane, Cottingham

The Weekend in Black and White is here.
Weekend Reflections are here.

Priory Cottage

What does word 'cottage' conjur up for you? A small, thatched affair maybe or perhaps some artisan's dwelling; certainly not, I suspect, something like this substantial five bedroomed quasi-mansion that sits on Northgate in Cottingham. Built around 1854 it comes with very large gardens. It's for sale and should you be tempted  the asking price is just a shade under £400,000, but you get a lot of 'cottage' for all that.

Unlimited chips and more ...

Sign at the local pub offers a gastronomic delight ... just wondering what the 'more' tastes like and if there'll  be room left after the french fries...

C word on Vermont Street

I mentioned earlier how the local phone monopoly was painting up their cable cabinets with bits of what it likes to call culture. Here's the Humber Bridge gracing the end of Vermont Street, just next to that church they're demolishing that I showed yesterday. The artist, Katie Spencer, says the bridge represents "the pinnacle of Hull: togetherness and community". I promise not to post any more of these things, if you are remotely interested (and why wouldn't you be) there's a web page with all the current images and a dinky little map here. (There's almost certainly gong to be more, they'll spread like toads).

Acquired on behalf of clients

This is, or rather was, the Newland United Reformed Church on Beverley Road. It had stood empty for as long as I can remember and is now being reformed but in a more disunited way. I don't know what is to become of the site, I'll let it come as a surprise.

Ppick up a penguin

Imagine, if you can, that you're a flightless bird from the Southern hemisphere used to ranging up to 16 miles a day in the ocean for your food and living in groups of dozens  if not hundreds of your fellow birds. OK I know that being a penguin is not everyone's idea of fun but I expect penguins are having a blast. That is until the concerned conservationists get you in their bleeding heart sights. Then they'll whisk you up to be an exhibit in this state of the art animal prison with a new home that "runs over three floors and features a swimming pool, diving pool, beach area, nesting area and the penguins very own outdoor balcony with views overlooking the River Humber". It's been built with your "penguin comforts in mind". Whoop-de-doo!

From March 3 you can, for a not inconsiderable fee, stand and gawp at five unfortunate Gentoo penguins as they 'perform' for your entertainment in a £750,000 exhibit. The place says it's "For Conservation, not profit" well phooey! This is just a vile crowd puller and nothing whatsoever to do with conservation. At a similar venue in Scarborough the penguins are being dosed with anti-depressants probably to stop them drowning themselves ...

Sammy's Point

The bit of land on the east side of the junction of the river Hull and the Humber, where the Deep is now squatting, was once a large ship yard run by one Martin Samuelson. In the 1850's and 60's about one hundred steam vessels were made here by Martin Samuelson and Co before they sold out to another company and moved onto other business. Samuelson's name however became attached to this spit of land and Sammy's Point it remains.

I came across this oil painting of the shipyard, painted from the other side of the river, on the BBC's site where it is wrongly named (nobody's perfect).

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Expensive Toy

You'll no doubt be familiar with Hull new £7 million award winning toy. I know some call it a bridge but basically it's a toy that the Council plays with every Saturday at 11am and 3pm and on Sundays at 12.45pm. Here's a video of them playing (the sound track is somewhat odd). I'm sure that it's a truly unique experience ....

Now the bridge swings to allow shipping to go along the river but the river is silting up and there are at present no plans to dredge it so sooner or later no shipping will go up or down this river; indeed the river itself may choose to go somewhere else (and who would blame it?). There's supposed to be a cafe/shop on the bridge but no-one daft enough has been found to take up the tenancy. The windows give good reflections of Hull's flood barrier.

I'm told it looks pretty at night.

This Weekend's Reflections are here.

Railway Accident

My thanks to the local newspaper (it's not often you're going to hear that from me) for reminding me about these terrible events on this day in 1927. Twelve people were killed when two trains collided just outside Paragon Station. You can read about it here. This little memorial is to be found at the rear of Hull Royal Infirmary. It's not the original one, that one, in the grand tradition of things, was nicked.

White van man got bored ....

...so he added a splash of colour.

Half empty or half full?

It was only in October last year that I posted how plans were being put forward to turn this dry dock into an amphitheatre [ 1 ]. After months of work all the silt that had accumulated in the dock had been washed out and the place looked ready to go. Well, as I may have mentioned, the Humber rose to record heights one night in December and refilled this dock. No problem you might think; just wait for low tide open the dock gates and let the water out. I'm guessing the dock gates don't work too well after the years of neglect so it's a case of slowly pumping out the water. Seeing the place as it is now I hope gives the planners pause for thought and they build a higher wall else their amphitheatre will be a duck pond. 

While I'm here can I point you in the direction of this excellent blog post about Hull: "Hull: City of Culture". It's a fairly comprehensive review of Hull's' architectural delights and horrors and examines some of the causes for the city's woes. As the author says "Hull is a super place, one of the most distinctive and unusual towns in England, whose assets are being absurdly wasted."

Going but not gone yet

It was May last year that I reported that the Arc building had been sold and was due to move on to pastures new. Well, as you can see, it and its turbines are still very much all present and correct. Seems the best laid plans have gone agley as they are wont to and the building is up for sale again. So if you've got £75,000 to spare (yeah, I know it was sold at auction for £21,000 but a profit must be turned somehow) you can have a bunch of upturned caravans to do with as you like so long as you move them from here before the Castle Street improvements begin. The turbines are not included, they've already been sold, not that they ever worked properly.

Cleminson Hall Upgrade

A couple of years ago I posted abut how this former student hall of residence was falling into disrepair and had become a home for vagrant pigeons [ 1 ]. Well recently (within the past couple of months any way) scaffolding has gone up and repairs and renovation are being carried out. I have it from the horse's mouth as it were that the building will become four flats. My predictions of ultimate demise were seemingly misplaced.

Does my bum look big in this?

You never know quite what you might see if you peek through the neighbour's foliage. This classical statuary can be glimpsed at the more expensive end of my street.

Poor old George

It's not much of a road more a cut through from Alfred Gelder Street to High Street but even so I bet old George was a bit miffed to have his yard renamed. How could he possibly compete with the 'sainted' Gandhi? It curls round the back of the Crown Court and brings you out near this.

Are you still here?

About a year ago I posted how this tidal power project had gone under as it were [ 1 ]. Now the good folk who live near it want it gone, removed, scrubbed and the foreshore returned to its former condition. Given that it was only supposed to be there for three years and it's doing no good just sitting there I suppose this is only right and proper however the Department of Energy and Climate Change has responsibility for decommissioning the device so it may be around for a while longer as they are having active discussions over it's future. (I wonder what  an inactive discussion would sound like.)

The Weekend's Reflections are here.

Curry House

I took this photo because I was intrigued by the overly large pots in the upstairs windows. This place is on Holderness Road and is, so I 'm told, the best curry house in Hull.

Again with those emigrants

Some time ago I posted a picture of this statue showing the guy with a thousand yard stare, well now you can see what he was gawping at; Albert Dock and the Humber. Personally I find this thing a tad schmaltzy for my taste: the man with the vision thing, the woman tending to the babe, the young lad carefree it's all a bit too much. But it's a Mormon sponsored thing so I guess we can't expect much else. 

On the subject of emigration we are still awaiting the hordes of Romanians and Bulgarians who we were promised would flood our shores once restrictions were eased this year. I guess they've found better places to go or they're waiting for the rain to stop.

Stable door

Albert Dock at high tide

As the horse goes clip-clopping down the street those who ought to have known better have come to the astonishing conclusion that the stable door was open all along. Oh yes, they say in what is called an official investigation into the floods of last year, the Albert Dock defenses were the lowest in the city and yes, they couldn't lock the gates because the tidal force would have buckled the gates but the flood would have happened any way as there was too much water. So to close the stable door temporary flood defenses are been piled up along the dock and a permanent fix has been brought forward by two years [ 1 ]. Let's hope old man river will wait that long.

Cool Place

Taken by Margot K Juby

The Times, three years ago, ran a piece about twenty cool places to stay and obviously having run out of ideas by nineteen came up with Hull as their twentieth. I suspect the 'Hull can do no wrong' brigade will be dining out on this for years to come. If you do decide to stay in Hull then maybe you will be entertained by the ingenious uses some of the many vacant shop windows have been put to or maybe not. But hey that's cool ...

Keep Out

Victorian Pier is undergoing repairs to damage caused I think by the floods at the end of last year. There's bright orange plastic fencing to keep out the unwary.

Smoke House Doors

Here's the newly renovated smoke house off Wellington Street. It's still to find a tenant despite the deadline for registering an interest passing last November. Never mind, at least the local paint sprayer who goes by the name of Hull Graffiti has been at work alleviating the gloom.

Today being what it is the City Daily Photo's first of the month theme is 'Entry'. To see what others have entered on this click here.

I bet you're dying to know what those little blue plaque say aren't you?