Smile, damn you

I was going to say that today, unlike yesterday, is poets day but then I find that October 7 is Happy World Smile Day! Spread that Joy so it comes back and hits you in the gob.

The weekend in black and white is (thankfully) smiling at us from here.

Meet the Burtons

Richard Burton

Due to events that need not concern you I was forced yesterday afternoon to stay in Cottingham for three hours. Now Cottingham has a few attractions but not, even on a good day, three hours worth. And yesterday it was cold and raining heavily, yes I know it's May. So seeking shelter from the elements I ended up in St Mary's church, camera in hand and acres of time to fill. The place was, as usual empty with only the vicar's CCTV cameras keeping me company. Anyway enough of my troubles ..

Tucked away by the entrance are three large (ridiculously large) memorials to various Burtons the people who owned most of Cottignham in the 18th century and indeed lots of east Yorkshire as well. The most notable, if you are into military-history things that is, is the one above to Richard Burton a commander of the British army in North America. He was lieutenant governor of Quebec and then governor of Three Rivers Province back in 1760s or thereabouts. Below are two more memorials to William and Robert Burton who as far as I can tell did little other than have great wealth and do whatever it is wealthy people do. I did not notice any memorial to Napier Christie Burton who seemed to manage to live beyond even the Burton family's means and ended up selling the holdings in Cottingham, even at one stage going to debtors prison. Somehow I couldn't find anything to him, strange that...

Robert Burton

William Burton

Sign of the cross

This is a new display on St Columba's on Holderness Road. Somehow I doubt any amount of new signage is going to get the punters into church although I grant it does have high brand recognition.

By schisms rent asunder

First of all I admit to coming here once again with half a story. I don't know what the intentions are regarding the recently burnt out Methodist chapel on Lambert Street. What I can say is that the triangular pediment that looked like it might tumble down at any moment has gone, also the top storey on one side. But most of the front, back and one side look, to my untrained eye, to be solid; so there might some hope of salvaging something out of all this. However the building is still in the hands of  "East Yorkshire's experts in demolition" so we'll just have to wait and see. As I said, half a story, if that.

See how great a flame aspires ...

...Kindled by a spark of grace!

I could not say that I was entirely surprised to learn yesterday morning that the George Lamb Memorial Chapel on Lambert Street had been destroyed by fire. As I mentioned in my post three years ago it had been in a fairly derelict state for years and last used for God bothering 21 years ago. Other long empty buildings have been subject to similar blazes in the recent past. 

I'd heard rumours the Council were going to buy it under the compulsory purchase system but I don't know if anything came of that. Anyhow that's all a bit moot at the moment. The innards are completely gone and engineers are testing the structural viability of the shell. Let's hope the facade is sound enough to be saved at least though it does look a bit iffy to be honest. There is, of course, plenty of scuttlebutt about how convenient this destruction might be for any potential developer, I couldn't possibly comment.

Maintenance

Prayer might be a strong wall and fortress of the church but it does no harm to get in the masons every now and then to check over the stonework and make sure the church is still a goodly Christian weapon. Here's Cottingham's parish church, St Mary's, getting some serious maintenance a few weeks back, after seven hundred years or so perhaps this is not so surprising.

Arnold Street

...or yet another photo of Anlaby Road. 

In the foreground is EYMS' Hull garage. EYMS quite rightly put up fares when the oil price rose but for some inexplicable reason haven't reduced them when the oil price fell. Must surely just be an oversight on their part, what say you? EYMS were subject of a documentary series on TV last year, On The Yorkshire Buses , if you seek adventure and derring-do then click on the link to catch up on all eight action packed episodes. *extracts tongue from cheek*

Lowering at the back is the spire of St Matthew's once dubbed the Stadium Church and now either closed or about to close because it's going to cost too much to fix it up. The local rag has it that this is Hull's last surviving Anglican church with a full spire, much good it did it.

A twofer

Here's St Alban's V2.0 on Hall Road. The fairly hideous brick block building was started in 1938 and finished after a long delay in the 1950's. It was built to replace the temporary church built in the 1920's which still stands beside it as the church hall. From the amounts spent repairing the newer building it might have been a wiser move to stick with the first effort. It's Grade 2 listed, a testament to its ugliness.

Hall Road is not to be confused with nearby Hull Road, I mean, come on, Hall and Hull; two completely different words aren't they. Not to taxi drivers and the Royal Mail apparently grrrrrrrr! 

Klokketårn

This is the Danish Sailors' Church of  St Nikolaj on the corner of Osborne Street and Ferensway. This 1950's building replaced a Victorian building on the other side of the street destroyed in the bombing of Hull during the last war. There are bells in this tower but I've never heard them ring. 

Linnet and Lark

"Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters."

The Linnet and Lark on Princes Avenue was once a second hand car dealers and from appearances hasn't changed much, out with the rusting cut-and-shuts and in with fizzy beer pumps add a bit of what is called entertainment  from 'up and coming  local talent' (this goes by the soubriquet of 'The Sesh'; session being too difficult a word to remember) and leave the rest to your imagination. Oh I forgot to mention the large TV showing football matches, which apparently attracts the sort of crowd you might expect it to attract.

The church lurking in the background dates from the time (1897ish) when there were no pubs at all on Princes Avenue, yes I know that is difficult to believe when it seems every building on the street is now in the refreshment trade. It was built as a Pentecostal church but now belongs to the Elim Pentecostals, the difference is no doubt as great as that between selling cars or beer ...

Trafalgar Street Church

Oh those Victorians! How they did like their churches, scattering them around the town with nary a thought to what the future would bring, like the market in Christianity collapsing post 1914-18. So now we have to deal with what might called post-Christian blight. This situation is made worse by a sentimental attachment to all things 'old' even if 'old' is only a hundred years and also conservation laws that defy stylistic and economic reason. Here's Trafalgar Street church on Beverley Road, built by the Baptists in 1906 in a mock Gothic brick flint-clad style (no doubt the builders' enthusiasm or funds did not run to paying out for stone) that you either love or detest (personally, it's as ugly a prayer factory as I've seen for quite some time). It was abandoned by them in 2002 then used by an even smaller sect for a while; it has been standing empty for nearly a decade. The rear church hall is now apartments, so far so good; but what on earth to you do with an empty church? Well they tried selling it for £160,000 but had to settle for a mere £80,000. That was over a year ago and still it sits there behind security fencing. I'm told it has been weatherproofed.  

Well now it seems to be a law that where ever there's an 'old' building falling into disrepair because there is no use for it there springs up a 'support' group to 'save' it and this is no exception. They want National Lottery money as well as donations for their rescue scheme. And their plan for this former house of God? A community gym! Because you must treat your body as a temple I suppose.

Did I mention it's a Grade 2 listed building in a conservation area? No? But then you'd probably guessed that's why it hasn't been knocked down a long time ago. More on this conservation nonsense tomorrow.

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.

The Stadium Church

Sitting at the junction of the Boulevard and Anlaby Road this is St Matthew's church. It was built in 1870 to accommodate the expanding city's spiritual needs. Whether or not it managed that I don't know but it's still open for business after all these years unlike many other Victorian churches built at that time. The church's website informs me that it has a special ministry for sport and also for the annual Hull Fair. The church has taken to calling itself the Stadium Church due its closeness to the KC Stadium though the latter has far bigger (all paying) congregations.

All Saints' Day

A church tower is a beacon to direct the faithful to the house of God; it is a badge of ecclesiastical authority, and it is the place from whence the heralds of the solemnities of the church, the bells, send forth the summons. Let no one imagine that a tower is a superfluous expense, it forms an essential part of the building, and should always be provided in the plan of a parochial church.

Augustus Welby Pugin

I thought there had to be a reason for these things that pepper the countryside, there I was thinking they built them for the view. But then again this is Pugin speaking and he was a distinctly odd fellow. Here's the tower of All Saints church in Driffield built around 1450. As I mentioned earlier the church was revamped by Gilbert Scott in the 1880's when eight additions were made to the tower, not to everyone's delight. The church's own website says of them "The eight pinnacles at the top, 110 feet from the ground, also elaborately panelled, are somewhat unsatisfactory and heavy in appearance:...which gave them a distinctly debased type of crocket decoration". Still it's an impressive pile of stones for all that.

Today, the feast of All Saints (somehow I don't think that'll ever include me), is also City Daily Photo's theme day with the subject 'Heights'. See what others have got up to here.

Gargoyles

Driffield's ancient All Saints Church has a fine selection of small family friendly gargoyles. Here's a couple of the cutest. These look to be in remarkably good condition and I suspect they may be modern (when I say modern I mean Victorian) replacements as the church was extensively restored by Gilbert Scott in the late 1870's. 

Driffield Church

This is the fifteenth century tower of All Saints Church, Driffield taken against the light, in fact against all that opticians advise, straight into the sun. 

The Weekend in Black and White continues here.

A backyard off High Street

You could see St Mary's on Lowgate if it wasn't for the houses in between.

Debout! les forçats de la faim

Here in Hull, in one of the richest countries on the planet, people are going hungry for want of money to buy food. While politicians vie, in the vilest manner, to condemn the so-called generosity of the welfare system, and rich men pay themselves bonuses for their failures and we plough on through the never ending depression, it is difficult, I think, not to want the Earth to rise on new foundations.

Old School

At the north-east corner of Kingston Square stands this impressive building. It was once a school belonging to Christ Church which stood where the car park is on the left.  Nikolaus Pevsner in his architectural survey described the building and stated that "it should be saved" and so it was; though now it houses flats and not school children eager to learn.

Below a picture of Christ Church that I 'borrowed' from Hull Council's site. As you can see it was no small affair and came complete with full Gothic revival nonsense. The building, like much of Hull, was a victim of bombing during the war and put out of its misery in the early 60's. The space has since become dedicated to the new god: Car. 

Another Bloody Church ...

So the lights turn green and we advance a few yards and wouldn't you know there's another church, Hull's Community Church. This one is brand new and is somewhat different from other places of worship. This one has funding from the Adventure Capital Fund for all kinds of community works and so on. In their words  "it’s a faith-based organisation working to improve lives in a deprived part of Hull". Hull Council and other groups rent space in the building providing a range of services from IT training to support for refugees, sports groups, and health charities. Now I'd prefer a secular approach to this sort of thing but in reality there was nothing like this going on before so I suppose it's welcome in a way.