82 Shades of ....

Just keeping up to date with the latest colour scheme of this bar/restaurant (Bar 82) on Princes Dock Side. You've seen it purple, white and now it can't seem to make up its mind.

Flying the black flag of himself.

A town crow, blacker than ever, treats the Saturday afternoon shoppers and carousers with utter disdain before swooping down on a discarded morsel.

Willow Pattern

 

Staying in Queen's Gardens for no other reason than that it is greening up nicely and the first summer visiting birds were singing madly  in the treetops despite the typically chilly (quasi nithering) April easterly breezes. 

I came across a plaque that either I'd never seen before or had completely forgotten that informs the stranger that this place was once a dock built on the outer limits of the town. In my defence I have to say this plaque is in a very silly place on a wall over a pond, almost as if it was not meant to be seen

The place looks fine from a distance but is actually falling to pieces and bits of it are now fenced off for safety. This is the inevitable and unsurprising result of the Council's lack of care and incompetent management ( I moaned about it two years ago here.)

Safety fencing on left of picture

But enough of moaning. Queen's Gardens is still a grand little park .

A welcome improvement

Almost exactly two years ago I posted that the empty police station by Queen's Gardens was for sale. Well someone bought it (for £1.4 million) and wasted little time (for Hull that is) in turning it into something clad in glass and steel. Two extra storeys make the building look less squat. These new apartments will be a  welcome transformation of the depressing 1950's brick and concrete building that marred the neighbourhood of the gardens.

To Build a Bridge v2.0

I may have mentioned from time to time the inconvenience to the folk of this sleepy little town of having a busy dual carriage way split off a good third of the town centre. Well never let it be said that nothing has been done about it. Lots of plans have been drawn up, many words have been spoken on the matter, numerous ideas have been proposed, indeed a whole mountain range of hot air, wasted opportunity, and best intentions has sprung up and been eroded to dust by the passing thirty or so years. But no more! A few months ago the silly EU flags were pulled down (& put in storage, you never know when they might be needed again things being the way they are just now...) JCBs cleared land and cranes and pile drivers appeared. It seems that at long last a footbridge will span the mighty A63/Castle Street so people on foot or in wheel chairs or on segways, bikes or unicycles or what ever can just waltz from one side to the other without waiting for the little green man. The price of all this fancy liberty? A mere £12 million.

Before I get too carried away I would just caution that the last footbridge built in this town took over three years to build with problems involving the contractor. And, right on cue, the contractor building this has recently gone into administration. There are, of course, promises that this will not affect the construction. Hmmm.

I bet you're dying to know what the bridge is going to look like. I can sense your jealousy ....

(Pictured "borrowed" from Hull Daily Mail)

This is not even the begining of the end ...

Here in the recently renamed town of Inertia things have taken a surprisingly active turn. As you see no actual construction is going on but there's active demolition, the breaking of eggs before the cooking of an omelette perhaps (though I wouldn't set the table just yet). Yep down goes the unused, unloved, effectively unoccupied for a mere forty years former Edwin Davis store. This store was a replacement for one damaged by the Germans in WW2 and that store was in its turn a replacement for one damaged by the Germans in WW1 ( I don't know what Edwin did to rile them  but they had his store on speed dial so it seems.) 

The BHS/Coop building behind is also due to tumble with the Council really wanting to keep the mural if at all possible (the proposed development has the mural poking out atop three storeys of glass like an unwanted inheritance ). We shall see.

Speaking of taking a surprisingly active turn I shall be back soon with more startling developments from Van Winkle City.

Je ne regertte riene

This wonderfully misspelt shop on Spring Bank is no longer trading, cannot imagine why ...

The Bike Shop, Spring Bank

Cliff Pratt's have been selling bikes on Spring Bank for donkey's years. They claim to be Hull's leading cyclist specialist since 1934 and I'm not in a position to argue.

(Other cycle shops are available in Hull)

Knife Angel

Freshly arrived in town today, the Knife Angel or National Monument Against Violence and Aggression, made from thousands of knives surrendered to police forces across the country (“Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife” ) , is a memorial to those whose lives have been affected by knife crime.

The statue will be in Hull for a few weeks before going off on its Round Britain journey. There's a lot about how it was made and so on here.

 

Burnett's Buddleia in Winter

I know how some folks seek completion; they want to know what happened next and did it all end well, happily ever after. So just for those who were worried the buddleia on Burnett House seems to have survived for yet another year.

The Christmas Crush

While I was posting about King's Lynn the so-called festive season came and went and New Year too; seems so long ago now. Anyhoo ... here's Whitefriargate, erstwhile shopping hub of the city of culture and as you can see you could hardly move for the pressing throng all desperately getting their seasonal shopping ... 

I know I've posted many a time and oft about the decline of this street and was going to be ironic (not to say sarcastic) about the crowds down there but today I heard news that the big store on the left , Marks and Spencer, just about the only big shop left down here, announced plans for closure. It doesn't do to speak ill of the dead ... so let's just  move on, nothing to see here.

Gee but it's great to be back home

Maritime Museum

Right, so back in the city of culture a few buildings in the town appear to be illuminated in ever changing colours. This may have been a Xmas thing I wouldn't know; I haven't been back into town since a week or so before that damnable day. I shop out of town and fancy (and expensive, no doubt) lighting, expensive son et lumière shows (no matter how spectacular) and other fripperies aren't going to get me on the bus into town.

Pylons, The Loke and The Long Pond

As the sun set softly over Loke Road (or simply 'the Loke'; as the natives term it) so Margot indulged her passion for pylons.

St Nicholas' spire in the background

I admit it's the same pylon from a different view.

The short part of the Long Pond

The Loke crosses the Long Pond cutting this ancient water course in two. I'm guessing it's a monastic structure to do with drainage, monks were real clever at drainage... Old maps (1887) show a Short Pond close by and I'm guessing now filled in as no-body mentioned it when I was there. There was also another large pond named the Loke (sic) filled in and covered over and now a playground close by yesterday's picture.

If I'm right then this is the very pylon Margot used to dawdle under on her way home from school despite her mother telling her not to.

A drowning shopping trolley, when will they ever learn that they can't swim?

Some local wild life.

And with this post we've come to the end of our little day trip to King's Lynn and must make our way back to Hull. I enjoyed meeting Margot's old friends (who I'd only known from Facebook) and  even the hanging around for a locksmith in the cold of the evening seems like a dream now (OK a nightmare) ... Hoping to be back soon ...

None of this would have been possible without the kind assistance of Dave Hunter and Betsy Smith, friends also met on Facebook, who offered us a lift both ways, seems they like driving a lot. Once again many thanks ...

Ne dumpez pas ici!

In Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portugese and Ukrainian and in English (in any fool's language you like) it is forbidden to dump your rubbish down this alley at any time. Much good that sign has done.

Seems the fly-tipping curse is pretty universal in this country. Now someone on TV just the other day had the idea, that, maybe, just maybe, charging folk about £30 to take away their old sofas and chairs could, just could, mark you, be leading to this epidemic. And that it costs the Councils more to clean up this mess than they make in charges ... and, you know, like maybe a conclusion could be drawn from this ... (I don't know how to indicate that irritating rise in intonation at the end of every statement that has become fashionable these days; a fashion that folk seem to have picked up from our colonial cousins...) 

Regarding this particular criminal installation I gather the local council think it is the responsibility of the property owners to clear this mess while the owners have a very different view possibly expressed fluently in Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Portugese and Ukrainian with the Norfolk folk all nodding in agreement. What we've got here is failure to communicate...

Mere Portals

Today I post a collection portals that would otherwise just hang around on my computer. Starting with the rare Baroque barley-twist columns of Clifton House on Queen Street. Bits of this enormous house date from the 13th century.

This too is on Queen Street. There's a Devil's Alley somewhere in these parts, that I must go to see at some point.

This is the Burkitt Homes on Queen Street as well. They look pretty old but but they're just old-fashioned from 1909; fit in well with the surrounding ancient stuff.

Ancient doorway also on Queen Street.

This is opposite St Margaret's, I wonder if the floor matches the window.

Although engraved in stone this is no longer Lloyds Bank but rather the TSB. This is neither the time nor the place to explain how the change came about... It's on good old Tuesday Market and why I didn't post it  back when I showed everything else about Tuesday Market I don't know.

And last and for no other reason than I like it, here's the Customs House doorway by the Purfleet.

Some more bobs and bits

Here's some more snaps from King's Lynn. Starting with a compass structure by the Purfleet, commemorating historical activities and notable people associated with the town.

There's a maritime trail you can follow should you wish to become a full time tourist. Maybe later.

This cattle trough is near the museum in what is now the bus station and shopping centre but at one time was King's Lynn cattle market. There's a very similar one on High Street , Hull.

And a final cute memento mori from St Nicholas' that should have been posted a few days ago but somehow slipped through the net.

Some bits and bobs

Today is an assortment of photos taken because I was in full tourist mode photographing anything without much discretion. First off is Pilot Street close by St Nicholas chapel and the exorcist's house.

King's Lynn was rich enough to have no fewer than four monasteries leaching off it before good King Henry put an end to such parasitic simony and other restrictive practices. I've shown the Franciscan Greyfriars tower, there were also Dominicans, Carmelites and the above wall is the remnants of the Augustinian monastery. Because Augustinian was a bit of a mouthful for medieval folk it was shortened to Austin; this little road is still known as Austin Street.

The Tudor Rose Hotel with its fine original doorway is just off Tuesday Market Place. It's a 16th century building that comes with resident ghost , a woman in a long white dress who wanders around the place ...

This odd shaped building on Nelson Street, was a medieval pub known as the Valiant Sailor until 1925.

Last for today is St Margaret's Lane which has hanseatic warehousing dating from 1475 and leads down to the river.