King W

We don't do military coups in Britain, at least not very often. The last one was in 1688 when a supposed fear of popery and all things Catholic was used as an excuse to bring in a mercenary and his Dutch army to oust the King and his followers. This hired thug was then made king; though the City of London with its financial power was the ultimate ruler of the country and still is to this day. Of course these events are never referred to as a putsch or an invasion, no, this is our 'Glorious Revolution'.

I've shown this adornment to a public urinal before (here) but there's no harm in posting a couple of new shots, is there?

Sunset at the Deep

I showed you the Deep some time back with views from across the river Hull. This time it's up close and personal. For those of you who don't know, the Deep is a submarium, in fact the world's only submarium. It's a massive tourist attraction with thousands of visitors every year. Needless to say I've not been inside it, I don't pay to watch fish swim round in circles.

Keep Out!

This starburst security featutre adds to the attractions of Hull's marina; well it's better than a plain fence anyway.

Lifeboats

Here's what is claimed to be the "finest dockside training facility in the UK" and who am I to argue? These colourful lifeboats are used to practice getting off offshore rigs and drilling platforms as quickly as possible. If you're interested in having a go the company has a website here.

Dockside Sculpture

I came across this the other day while I was wandering around the old docks. There's no little plaque to tell what it is or who made it; so if you know anything about do let me know.

Pop goes the weasel

In town the other day I noticed that not one but three pawnbrokers had sprung up on the same street within thirty yards of each other. On another street there were two more 'uncles'. They seem to be like vultures pecking at the rotting corpse of the economy.

Humber Barge

The Humber is a mile wide at this point but the navigable channel is tucked up near the foreshore which is handy if you want to see barges passing by. This barge is called the Seagull and for bargephiles there's more pictures here.

Up on the roof

There's been a path along the banks of the Humber for hundreds possibly thousands of years so when a warehouse was built on the foreshore at Albert Dock there was only place for the path to go: up on the roof. Whilst it can be a bit nerve wracking if you suffer from vertigo or if there's strong wind blowing the uninterrupted view of Hull and the Humber makes it all worthwhile.

Click to enlarge

Newland Avenue

The date on the bridge 1882 is when Hull incorporated the village of Newland and made the road passable to traffic, before then this was known as Mucky Peg Lane. Newland Avenue is a most interesting street whose activities attract people both day and night. There are greengrocers, butchers, a fishmonger, several bakers and other food shops, including Polish, Chinese and Asian ones, hairdressers, florists, various specialist shops, cafés and many charity shops. In the evenings the takeaways, café bars and late-opening convenience stores and the Piper continue to attract people. So you can get many things on Newland Avenue nowadays except mucky pegs.

Got the Blues

Taken from the top deck of a bus this is one of the busiest places in Hull. It's Britannia House, home of the Department for Work and Pensions, the dole office. Over a quarter of households in Hull have no one in employment and 30% of children are classified as living in poverty. There is no end in sight to this appalling state of affairs, if anything, it's going to get worse; a lot worse. Without this place and money flowing from it I shudder to think what a state we'd be in. 

On a lighter note the blue lumps and phallic pillar are testament to the folly (no other word will do, except perhaps, vanity) of a previous leader of the Council and who now happens to be Lord Mayor. He does like to dress up and make himself a laughing stock providing some comic relief in our dire straits.

Piper

The Piper club is on Newland Avenue, the centre of student-land and an excellent old fashioned shopping street. It's website claims to "have something for everyone, across the week, with our eclectic mix of nights, from iconic mid-week mash-ups to established indie nights and retro cocktail nights"; so you have been warned.

If your shoes need mending drop in on Billy at the Heel & Key Bar, he's been there thirty or more years and he's the best in town.

Golden Sun

This is a fire insurance mark, high up on the side of a building on High Street. It dates from the 1700s. In those days each insurance company had its own 'fire brigade'. When there was a fire the 'fire brigade'  would seek to extinguish the flames in those buildings with the company's markers first. Uninsured buildings would be left, often with disastrous consequences for neighbouring properties. It was similar to the present US health care system. This free market approach to fire fighting was incompatible with protecting property so municipal fire brigades grew up paid for by taxes. I guess it's easier to get people to pay to protect property than to protect health.

Wise Reflections

I know nothing of what this building is for so, as a wise man once said, if you have nothing to say, say nothing.

This is the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, part of the University of  Hull. You'll find it on High Street right next door to Wilberforce's house. There's almost certainly a website but you're all grown up now and know how to use Google™, so I'll leave to your own devices.

University House or what were they on?

Now when University House was built it was not this fantasy of glass and steel but a mere functional 'soviet-style' concrete box that you can see in the back. It worked perfectly well as the student union building with cafes and bars and so on. Obviously sometime in the eons since I left the place it became so unbearably ugly that it needed a makeover and what a makeover. It took me a while to realise that the canopy changes colour. It's pretty useless as a canopy but what the heck! In these days of cutbacks to universities this is an obscene monument to conspicuous consumption.

Out for a duck

Sometimes it gets eerily empty in the old town; just me and a duck have the place to ourselves.

Church and Market

I don't think I've shown the front of Holy Trinity church before as until recently it was obscured by two large trees. Unfortunately one of the trees succumbed to disease and was removed. Whilst it's sad to lose a large old tree it does clear a space for me to show you the impresseive windows of the church; now if only that sign wasn't there ....

The tower on the left belongs to the market, why they need a tower? I don't know.

Trinity

It's a public house, a place where intoxicating liquors may be sold for consumption on or off the premises. Oh, and it's on Trinity House Lane, hence the name, either that or there's a religious connection and I can't quite see that somehow.

Sunburst

This is the back of what used to be part of the University of Lincoln. I showed you the front sometime back (here)

If you want a potted history of how come the Univeristy of Lincoln came to be in Hull read on.

It started out as Hull College of Education and various other educational establishments in Hull. With the passage of time this became Humberside College of Higher Education with colleges in Grimsby as well. Then, not wishing to remain a mere college, it became Humberside Polytechnic. In came a change of government and all polytechnics were now to be called universities, so Humberside University it became. The city of Lincoln was without its own university, so the University of Humberside was approached to develop a new campus to the south west of the city centre. The University of  Lincolnshire and Humberside emerged from this. Now a strange thing happened, gradually the business tranferred to Lincoln, bit by bit, courses and departments shifted south of the river; it was called consolidation. And the name changed once again, to the University of Lincoln (hmmm). The last I heard this building is no longer part of the university and just about all buildings in Hull relating to the university have been sold off. 

Alleyway

Another of the many alleys that make the old town more interesting than the glass and steel new city.

Green

It may not be the best photo of 2011 but I like it.

Happy New Year!

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

True Grit

This year has been the second warmest on record and this month has been 1C above average. All of which means this place is pretty redundant for the moment. It's the Beverley grit depot for the council's highway department. Last year they nearly ran out of supplies in December. Still there's plenty of Winter left.

Chemistry, boring?

They say you should never judge a book by its cover and maybe the same applies to buildings. This drab 1950s brick building is possibly the most boring building in Hull but it has played an important part in the development of the modern world. It's difficult to imagine a world without liquid crystal displays; they're on your phone, your clocks, instrument panels, monitor screens and so on. Without the work of Professor Gray in this building developing liquid crystals that were stable at room temperature we might be living in a very different world. Who said chemistry is boring?

Brynmor Jones Library

In the dim distant days of last year I posted about this building (here) so I thought I'd show a different angle. I have to say this is an odd building; the massive cube looks like an aberrant addition to a more modest brick building whose art deco entrance is still in use today.

No Trains

I took this on Sunday when, for some reason, there were no trains running, which is just as well if you're going to play about on the tracks.

Sunsets and Puddles

Taken by Margot K Juby

Last year's silly cold weather has been followed this year with even sillier weather. Temperatures today(14C/57F) are near a record high for late December. With clear skies we've been having some stunning sunsets; this one captured in the puddles of Snuff Mill Lane.

Creep down the alleyway

You never quite know what is waiting for you when you go down the alleyway's of Hull.

Fountain by night

Here's the fountain in Queen's Gardens all lit up.  

Here it is during daylight.

Winter sunset

They close the park at sunset; that's about two minutes after I took this shot.

Beverley Minster

After yesterday's long range shot here's one a bit closer. I know what you're thinking; why didn't I stand a little further back to take this shot? Well I would have but in the 18th century some inconsiderate person built a row of houses right alongside so I couldn't, now if only they'd thought .... This is the western end of the minster and I'm sure you'll agree it's a fine piece of gothic construction.

Minster money pit

Here's Beverley Minster taken last Spring, you can just make out the blossom in hedgerow.This is the view from the aptly named Long Lane; I guess this view hasn't changed in many centuries. 

This imposing building, built by an old power long gone, is now a tourist attraction with an insatiable demand for money to keep the rain out. I suspect it was ever thus.

The next to arrive at platform 2 ...

...is my train home.

christmas in hull dot co dot uk

When the early christians took over the pagan end of year festivals I suspect they had little idea of their own feast being taken over in turn by pursuit of sales. Still the lights are pretty enough and the crowds a lot thinner than in previous years; after all you can do it all online now.

Side Elevation

Here is 'One Humber Quays'; an office block built with taxpayers' money as part of a £17 million pound development in 2006. It stood half empty for five years whilst it housed a branch of the World Trade Centre. Earlier this year the WTC decamped to smaller premises. Under the new government's policy of dismantling anything and everything the old government did the place was sold, in what can only be called a depressed market, for considerably less than cost. This is what happens when you have a 'build it and they'll come' approach to redevelopment; you build it and they come and they take it for a song. It goes without saying that no politician or official was hurt during the making of this flim flam.

The Emigrants

This statue on the waterfront near Humber Dock commemorates the more than two million European emigrants who passed through Hull on their way to America in the 19th century until the outbreak of war in 1914. That's a lot of people moving themselves out of Europe and into America; I wonder if America would be so welcoming to another flood if times get tough in Europe. 

If you're a Liverpudlian and you think this looks familiar that's because there's an identical copy at the Albert Dock, Liverpool. The sculpture is by Neil Hadlock, Mark DeGraffenried and Taylor Hadlock from Utah and was donated by a Mormon led foundation in 2001, here's a link to more on this.

Fun with the sun

The December sun sets early and casts some really long shadows. The mill above I've shown before here. The temptation to take a silly picture was overwhelming so I gave in.

Winter draws on again

So to Westwood and another visit to this old chestnut tree that I showed round about this time last year. This year it's mild with no real frosts or snow unlike the deep freeze of last year. It can stay like this as far as I'm concerned.

Tight squeeze

Somebody's expensive toy makes its way into the marina.

Bah Bah Humbug

Betty Boop and a sheep standing outside a shop can only mean one thing; it's Xmas and the shops are getting desperate for our money.

Closed for the season

If you were to stand here anytime between, say, May and the end of September you'd be surrounded by crowds of day trippers and holiday makers stuffing their faces with fish and chips and burgers while gawping at the harbour. There'd be dozens of gulls to help them consume their repast. Come in December, however, and you have the place to yourself; just be sure to wrap up warm.

Rising of the moon

I didn't get to see the lunar eclipse yeserday but I did catch this nearly full moon rising over Bridlington on Friday.