The place to be is Withernsea

If you haven't been to Withernsea then all I can say is that you haven't lived. With its balmy sandy beaches and inviting blue waters Withernsea is the seaside resort without parallel. The posters below on Whitefriargate last year gave only the merest hint of the pleasures that await you on the sunny Yorkshire coast. Just half an hour's driving on delightful roads due east of the city of culture will bring you to this very special place.

OK it's a bit of dead end, run down resort that used to have a lot of visitors until the railway was removed. Now there's still a beach, a handful of shops and a lighthouse that was carefully placed so far inland that the eroding waves could never reach it. I went there once, it rained.

A Pair of Glasses on a Bench

At some point last summer someone found that cheap reading glasses are cheap for a reason ... and this being the City of Culture instead of just binning them they neatly arranged the erstwhile spectacles in a respectful homage to Nguyen and Khayatan's famed installation at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. 

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Space and Entity

I meant to post these last year but obviously didn't. They're part of that exhibition at the University which I've shown bits of before (1 2 3 ). The one above is entitled Space and not as I thought Halitosis, the lower one goes by the name of Entity and Margot is responsible for that photo. I had thought this exhibition would be over by now as the bumpf on it says it lasts until 31 march 2017 but I guess they got the year wrong and haven't noticed.
I have a couple more of these things and will dig them out and post them soonish meanwhile you will no doubt be pondering on how well they stimulate "thought and refection about the historic connection between Iceland and Hull"....

FREEDOM

Freedom is the will to be responsible for ourselves.

                                                                Freddy Nietzsche

Came across this little sign on the Scale Lane on the side of the Lion and Key pub.

Promis'd joy!

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy!

News came a few weeks back that the Council had bought this building and the empty Edwin Davis building behind it. There's a grand plan to demolish both and erect shops, some housing and that thing most vital for a civic entity, an ice rink (every town should have one), the tout ensemble to be known as Albion Square. As I understand it the demolition will go ahead speedily, leaving the mural and a demolition site, no doubt artfully boarded off. Then, well then, as I understand it, the Council go out with a begging bowl and seek a commercial partner to pay for the scheme. Of course if no such partner is forthcoming then there is, again as far as I know, no plan B and the people of Hull face having a scaffolded façade fronting a very pleasant demolition site for the foreseeable future. 

The boarding around the BHS building shows artist's impressions of the scheme, involving encasing the mosaic in a glass atrium. You may draw whatever inference you wish by my inclusion of the waste bin in this picture.

Icicles

A lengthy bit of cold weather does wonders to the Rosebowl fountain in Queen's Gardens. These are the best icicles I've seen here since 2010 and the last big freeze. It's turning a tad milder now so I guess these will be gone soon.

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Emma and the Beast from the East

Well who would have guessed it a cold spell in winter? The media love this kind  of thing, the Met office warnings from a week ahead foretelling a (Yellow/red alert?) hell on earth, the Daily Express saying (as it always does) this is the end of the world as we know it. So we get the confrontation of "Storm Emma" with the "Beast from the East". And? Well here in Hull there's maybe an inch of snow if you are generous and yeah it's cold, colder than it's been all winter but then cold is what you get in winter. Meh!

The play's the thing ..

I'd be a right old hypocrite if I could tell you anything about this play that was put on last year at the over endowed new Spring Street Theatre, sorry Hull Truck Theatre. Something to do with that old Hull meme of stopping the anointed king entering Hull (with its arsenal) at the start of that ridiculous bloody civil war. I did not go see, I know nothing about it; it may have been the dramatic non plus ultra de nos jours for all I know. I did however like the advert from a few months ago and now I have the opportunity to share it..

The City Daily Photo theme for March is "Play"