Don't you know there's a war on ...

And so to Bridlington, and what is all this then? The High Street was chosen to be the location for filming a rehash of Dad's Army, a late 60'-early 70's BBC sitcom about the Home Guard in WW2 (sounds dire but was actually very good, and still is, a bit of classic). The filming was in 2014 but the film itself has only just been released (some say it should be recaptured and never see the light of day). A review in the Times called the venture "cultural necrophilia", the Guardian said (more or less) it wasn't as bad as it could have been while others politely called it a "bad idea". As the original show is repeated constantly on TV I really can't understand why a second rate repro would get off the ground. Anyhow shops on the High Street are brazenly cashing in while they can with windows taped up against air raids, vintage posters and a general attempt to recreate 1940's Walmington on Sea; and who can blame them?

The Black Lion pub was renamed the Royal Oak in the film and no-body seems to have taken down the sign.

The street with the hall

Hmm maybe the signwriter who came up with this didn't understand that 'Hallgate' is not the gate of a hall but the street with the hall on it, in this case Cottingham castle, long gone. Or then maybe she/he did and could'nt give a monkey's either way; it's not important in the grand scheme of things I must admit. And don't be misled into thinking this is some ancient watering hole. I remember it was Hallgate bookshop not so many years ago; books to beer is progress of a sort...

After I'd written the above I realised I've posted this pub's sign before some five years ago, it was looking a tad tired then. I think I prefer the new one. The cameras are still there, keeping us safe from whatever.

The White Hart Hotel, again

I've shown this pub/hotel a couple of times now. The last time was back in March last year with a hopeful note that the place would reopen in Spring. Well two Springs have passed and a Summer and now Autumn and it's still not open. The economic climate has clearly not changed much, at least not for the better. This is a rear view, as it were, from Salthouse Lane and shows the full extent of this really quite large establishment. I guessing from the cosy way it agrees with the streets that at some point this was rebuilt to fit in with the 'new' layout of Alfred Gelder Street.

In the pink

To mark the Hull Freedom Festival  Ye olde black boy  on High Street has been painted pink (temporarily, I hasten to add, it's a listed building and so on and so forth....) Further the question "Does Kolour (sic) Matter?" has been asked. I leave that up to you. I draw your attention to the handsome window boxes, always a  favourite in these parts.

Say Cheese

In Latin American culture the instruction is, quite rightly, "Diga 'whiskey'" and while Swedes like to say 'Omelette', Danes have "Sig 'appelsin'", say orange. Germans, I'm told, prefer spaghetti, Iranians apples and Moroccans bread. All silly ways to make people smile while having their photos taken. (I suppose the modern version is along the lines of "Say Selfie") Are you smiling? No? Well suit yourself.

Oh and if you can say 'Cheese' ten times without laughing then it seems you are a very truthful person. 

This is the service gate of the Hull Cheese about which I posted at length some time back, here.

Gardener's Arms

With the University just a short walk down the road this place is very much a favourite with the academic (and perhaps not so academic) crowd. It's usually full to the brim and overflowing at lunch times. Along with this sunny beer garden there's also pool tables and no fewer than 17 TVs (blimey!) all showing sport, sport and more sport!!! (how nice...)

The Fagle has landed

Through the agency of time or, more likely thieving little hands, the Eagle on Anlaby Road has been transformed into the Fagle which, as I'm sure you all know, is a French word concerning an order of hardwood trees including oak and beech. No I didn't know that either I had imagined it to mean something entirely, erm how shall I put this, different (*innocent face*). But no matter the pub is still empty.

Some Silly Billyness

For today's offering I present our great deliverer in a reflection of the door way of the King Billy pub on Market Place. I read recently that King William was the very man who introduced this country to gin ("England may I introduce to Gin, Gin meet merry old England; I'm sure you'll get along famously!" and so it came to pass.), well he can't have been all bad.

Some scrapings from the bottom of the barrel

I've not been out and about much lately what with colds, seasonal social interference aka Xmas, looking after a large black dog and so on. So I've been sifting through pictures taken earlier this year and came across this bunch all from Humber Dock Street or nearby and all pretty similar so I thought I'd bunch them all up in one big post. The first two are the Minerva which I have shown in daylight here and here.

Below is the award-winning restaurant 1884 which I posted just before it opened here.

Thieving Harry's I posted recently here.

"Oh look! Here comes Dick with his pussy ..."

Pub sign on Commercial Road, Hull

I don't know if it's a particularly British thing but at this time of year most towns, villages and cities will have at least one pantomime show on offer. They may have differing titles such as Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Aladdin or Dick Whittington but essentially they are just the same old morality tale of good overcoming bad. The lead male is for some reason usually played by a woman and there's usually an old dame played by a man, all for comic effect (ha ha ha). Scripts are updated, no, updated is not the word since the jokes are as old as the world, to include scurrilous comments and innuendos about current events and personalities. Filthy puns are de rigueur , the filthier the better. There is always a sing-along with the lyrics somehow displayed on stage. If your panto doesn't include a prolonged session of "Oh no it isn't!" from the stage and an audience reply of "Oh yes it is!" then you should ask for a refund ... 

The only panto I've actually been to starred, if that is the word, the Shadows at Stockton ABC that was way, way back in around 1962. I think it may have been the mental scars from this experience that put me off all things 'festive' ever since. 

Green Bricks in the dark

Bleurgh! I'm feeling a bit like death warmed up at the moment so I'll just post this gloomy little scene and retire for a while with a warm drink and a bottle of aspirin, morituri te salutant....

Evening

I seem to be in a monochrome mood for some reason. It could be the near three days of rain and cloud and/or the earlier sunsets. Above Trinity House Lane and below Posterngate both of which I've shown before in more colourful mode.

Weekend Reflections are here.

The Monks Walk

I sometimes wonder what happen to all those monks after the dissolution of the monasteries, did they find alternative employment elsewhere? I mean what skills did an ex-monk have to bring to the medieval employment market? Was there much call for praying for souls, Gregorian chanting and all that silent contemplation malarky? As it turns out they were simply pensioned off and with the inflation of the day that was probably not a lot to live on. (The monastery servants, however, were simply given the sack and cast out!)  So no doubt the old Brothers union would like as not drown their sorrows in the nearby hostelry, swapping their good habits for bad, dissolute monks, eh, who wants 'em!.

Enough, enough. This is the Monks Walk on Highgate, Beverley just a few steps from the Minster. It used to be the George and Dragon or just plain George. It was definitely a pub back in the mid 17^th century and probably before that. Anyhow a few years back when it was being refitted it was found to date back to at least 1420. What you see here is a Georgian facade on some medieval buildings. The blank white sign on the right used to say "Whitbread" but clearly the link with this brewer has been dissolved since Whitbread ceased to brew beer about fourteen years ago (the first pint of beer I ever bought was a Whitbread, terrible frothy stuff, but I digress). The building is listed Grade2, there's more by a much better informed author on this page.

The Creeler

Part of Beverley's history trail this bronze statue of a creeler is at the top end of the beck. Creeler is an old local term for someone who, in medieval times, did the hard work of shifting cargo to and from boats and without which the merchants of Beverley would have been up the beck without a paddle. This was sculpted by Chris Wormald and unveiled in 2010.

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 ...

Get stuck in!

At the end of a busy day the working man deserves nothing less than a hearty meal and an ice cold pint of the amber nectar. He might also like a little privacy and not have some prying person point a camera at him from a passing bus but, hey, you can't have everything.

The months just fly by these days and here's another one starting up which can only mean one thing: theme day at City Daily Photo where for want of anything better 'zest' was plucked out of the dictionary and flung down as a challenge. See who has been bold (or stupid) enough to take it up here.

On the map

A cartographer's delight parked up by the Minerva.

Elephant & Castle

The Elephant and Castle on Holderness Road seems to have been for sale for years now. Anyhow it's boarded up, buddleia has taken over the window box and the paint is peeling off. Mind you it's not alone, there's many an empty boarded up shop on this stretch. I note the price has been reduced, even so, I doubt it'll be selling pints any time soon. The vogue nowadays seems to be to convert these sort of buildings into flats.

Green Bricks

Long, long ago this was known as the Humber Dock Tavern though I suspect that even then it was called the Green Bricks. Until a few yew years ago it was quite a small place then it grew and grew so that it now stretches half way down the street. I've shown this place before but I reckon it's worth another look.

Witham & I

Yesterday I had an appointment on Witham otherwise I would not normally spend any time there at all. I have mentioned before that it's a bleak and dismal space occupied mainly by car sales, small auto related businesses and various night time attractions. I don't think anybody actually lives on this street. There is an isolated pub that has somehow survived Hitler and the demolition crazies. In this desolate landscape there's a big Council office which was where I was bound.