The Building

Higher than the handsomest hotel

The lucent comb shows up for miles, but see,

All round it close-ribbed streets rise and fall

Like a great sigh out of the last century.

After 46 years Hull Royal Infirmary is beginning to show its age. Chunks of cladding have been coming adrift for a few years and so finally money has been found to repair and rebuild, there's even enough for a new Accident & Emergency Department, so as you can imagine the site is bit chaotic with more builders than doctors. I fear it is going to take more than a few million and a crowd of builders to save our NHS from the predations of this Government but this is not the place for that discussion.

The quote is from that beacon of joy Philip Larkin, (who else?), it ends:

That is what it means,

This clean-sliced cliff; a struggle to transcend

The thought of dying, for unless its powers

Outbuild cathedrals nothing contravenes

The coming dark, though crowds each evening try

With wasteful, weak, propitiatory flowers.

Until tomorrow then, if I'm still here ...

N ♥ L 09

A declaration of love made four years ago, I wonder if the passion is still as strong now and would they carve their names again on an old churchyard tree?

For those who like numbers and so on, Blogger informs me that this is the 1,000^th post. I suppose a modest celebration is in order,

Going to waste

This is the back of Humber Street taken from what would at one time have been Scott's Square. The cleared land was once made up to be a car park but now it's sealed off as even that can't turn a buck and besides those falling bricks might damage the chrome work. 

The Weekend in Black & White is here.

Was it Bill or was it Ben?

Readers who do not understand the title of today's post might like to Google 'Flower Pot Men' though on the whole I wouldn't recommend it (see below). This potty character adorns a café on Chanterlands Avenue.

OK for those of you who like to suffer or simply regress back to a long lost childhood here's a whole episode of the Flower Pot Men. I used to watch this during my formative years; it may explain a lot! Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin ....

Blue skies smiling at me nothing but blue skies do I see ...

Even a failed and lapsed scientist like me knows the importance of taking a representative sample but yesterday afternoon no matter where you pointed your camera there was only this horrible blue sky, a big old sun and no clouds.  This is only noteworthy because it rarely happens. Hopefully it won't last.

There's more blue sky thinking at Skywatch Friday here.

A green path

This is one of the paths through Spring Bank cemetery, the eastern end that's no longer used. The trees are doing their yearly trick of looking new. 

Windows and mud

Here's the view across the entrance to Humber Dock or the Marina as it's now called. This the old Steam Packet Wharf that I mentioned in a previous post. As you can see it's just a little bit silted up.

Ship No 275

So finally I have clambered aboard the Spurn lightship that has been moored in the Marina for years. I didn't go below decks as I'm allergic to screaming young brats seemingly unsupervised and running amok. Some other time maybe.

The guests are met, the feast is set ...

I came across this wedding reception by the Marina. They had not one but two photographers, stills and video, so not one precious moment would go unrecorded. I don't know who the loving couple were but I wish them good luck they're going to need it. I hope I don't appear in the background of their photos; grey-beard loons and wedding guests, now where have I heard that before?

Big boy's toys

This weekend the P1 Powerboat championships take place on the Humber in what I've read is called the Grand Prix of the Sea. This year there's a bit of local interest after a group local businesses had a whip round and bought One Hull of a Boat [ 1 ]. Personally I take the Miss Brodie approach to fast boats :“For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.”

The Weekend in Black & White is here.

Postscript: Oh dear! The crew of One Hull of a Boat were taken to hospital after it flipped over and crashed. [1] Still thrills and spills are what this game is all about isn't it?

Decay

The good folks of City Daily Photo have chosen as today's theme the 'Beauty of Decay'. Easy I thought just point my camera just about anywhere in Hull and click. It's all around me this decay malarkey but then on second thoughts there's hardly any beauty in it and the shabbiness that could be mistaken for decay is really mindless economic neglect. No, real decay leads to something new, it's a transformation, a recycling; it has a purpose. So it's back to nature and besides it's prettier than any tatty building in Hull.

A few years ago this  large tree, I think it was a horse chestnut, was felled on Beverley Westwood. Instead of clearing it away in some fastidious manner it was simply left lying. Over the years fungi and insects will no doubt eat it away and I will no doubt take pictures of them doing so.

 

Skyline

Here the high rise delights of Anlaby Road's hinterland punctuate the sky with a gentle toxic glow in the evening sunshine. From this distance it doesn't look too bad but this is probably as close as you'd want to get. It's rumoured people pay rent and taxes for the privilege of living in these places I find that difficult to believe. The über observant amongst you will have noticed that the boat in the foreground is HMS Explorer which I posted about before.

Posterngate from Princes Quay

Well I've looked at this picture for a good five minutes and I still can't think of anything interesting to say about it. So I guess I'll just leave it there and come back tomorrow.

Princes Quay

This shopping centre was once the only one in Hull and was consequently always crowded with hundreds of shoppers. Then, in a move which drew intense criticism, the top floor which used to have dozens of small stalls selling a variety of goods was converted into a ten screen digital cinema. Shortly after that St Stephens opened.  Then the economic depression struck. So now this place seems like a ghost town, you could almost  see the tumble weed drift by. It seems to be turning into a kind of leisure place what with the cinema and numerous franchised eating outlets and maybe that's where it's future lies since I can't see it being a major shopping centre again.

Haircut

As a child I was sent to the barber's every fortnight for a sixpenny (2.5p) short back and sides. Such training put me off barber's for life so that I haven't been in one of these places for decades as my long grey hair testifies. Still, as the guy on the bike shows, there's clearly still a demand to have one's hair cut back to the wood as they say.

First time for everything

Maybe they do it all the time, this sitting on a roof thing, and I have just failed to register it. Anyhow here's my first and positively last picture of a duck on a roof.

Butchery

This old butcher's sign has been revealed on Beverley Road, near to Cave Street. I can't remember a butcher's ever being there, that's going back thirty years. The shop is shuttered and closed along with neighbouring shops all benefiting from the economic butchery that is the government's austerity policy. Cuts here, chops there, free money for all our banker friends, oh well done old boy!

Pictures by Margot K Juby, because she had the camera and I didn't.

Cave Street

I don't know of any caves in this neighbourhood unless we are all in some kind of Platonic cave and only seeing shadows of reality cast upon the walls of our miserable existence. Anyhow this street of immeasurable pleasures runs off Beverley Road and is, as far as I know, unfortunately, only too real.

These pictures were taken by Margot K Juby while I was waiting at the bus stop. There's more monochrome merriment at the Weekend in Black & White here.

The pump don't work 'cause the vandals took the handles

Took myself off to Driffield yesterday afternoon, don't know why I bothered since there's nothing much there but it's a trip out of the house. By the beck I came across this old pump that's seen better times. Why they needed such a tall pump I don't know but the road is called Laundry Lane so that might have something to do with it.

Five houses on Mayfair

I may have mentioned that Hull's Beverley Road had at one time pretensions to posh; there's a Harley Street, Park Lane, Fitzroy Street (with allusions to Fitzrovia) and here's good old Mayfair. At one time these were respectable Victorian town houses for the rising middle classes complete with garrets for the domestic serving staff. Now, as you can see, no-one calls them home. I recall that in Monopoly™, Mayfair goes for £400 with houses £50 a go; that seems about the right price for this little lot.

I'm waiting for my bus

It's never early, It's always late,

First thing you learn is that you always gotta wait ...
I'm waiting for my bus.

(with apologies to Lou Reed)

Hi vis

Seems the neighbouring street was in need of  a bit of maintenance, so a strip about a yard wide was taken off and replaced on both sides. Took this gang of four (three to work and one to watch) two days to do the whole street. Whether all this was strictly necessary I don't know but they provided a colourful interlude.

No Parking

Nobody cares any more if you park outside these doors on Wellington Street. The business has long gone with the opening of the new fruit market over in Hessle. Those fancy coloured cowlings peeking out at the back mark the restoration of Hull's last smoke house  ( a mere £133,000, since you ask ) part of the regeneration of the old fruit market area if we are to believe what it says in the paper.

Babies 4 U: New and Used

Perambulators, buggies, strollers, pushchairs, baby carriages ... call them what you like this shop sells them new or  used along with lots of other gadgets and gizmos needed to rear children, kiddies, sprogs, bairns and so on. 

Shadows

This is the path that leads under Myton Bridge from Castle Street.

If you like your weekend in black and white click here.

Entrepôt

Here's another post of the Minerva Hotel. Built in the 1850's it served as the offices of one Richard Cortis an emigrant agent who was in the business of transporting hundreds of thousands mainly from Scandinavia through Hull and on to Liverpool and from there America. On arrival at Hull many ships would berth at the Steam Packet Wharf (below) adjacent to the Minerva. The male passengers were allowed to disembark and enjoy the pleasures of the town until evening when they must be back on board, women and children were kept on board until forward transport could be arranged.

Norway's declaration of a constitution on this day in 1814 may have raised nationalist passions but did nothing to stem the flow of its people to find a better life elsewhere. The figures are really quite alarming, from a population of  then around 2 million in one year alone, 1884, 28,804 people left. A million or so left in the century up to 1914. Norway's loss was Hull's gain, or rather the shipping company Wilson Line's gain. 

Now, of course, it's all changed and Norway is a rich and prosperous place with a high standard of living. Hull however has not fared so well, perhaps I should emigrate. Go East, old man!

Today's rather rambling post is part of City Daily Photo's Norway Constitution Day theme. 

Cold, Wet and Windy

I took this picture on Friday when it was blowing a gale. The noise from the rigging and other sundry items on these boats was just tremendous. Later, while waiting for my transport home, a Polish woman asked me why it was so cold (did she think I was responsible?), she had on a thick coat and hat and looked truly nithered! Since then it's turned even colder and temperatures are a good 5-6^oC below average. Add to that a good overnight soaking. These are all clear signs that Summer is on its way.

Portland Hotel: "one of Hull's most iconic buildings"

It's almost always fatal to be described by the local press as iconic. So it was with the Portland Hotel which went into administration last year and was sold to a 'developer' who has announced plans to turn it into student accommodation. It's on Paragon Street, a street which must hold some kind of record for business failures. As for the building itself it has few redeeming features being a seven storey brick and glass block, it's not ugly it's just boring and certainly not iconic. I've shown you the best bit here. So Hull loses a hotel but never mind there's plans for an eighteen (or was it twenty, I forget) storey monster elsewhere in town when the Council can be 'persuaded' and when pigs learn to fly.

Just by the by I saw the first swifts of Summer today, a bit late but then everything is late this year. Good to know the globe's still working.

Ornaments

Clearly someone who takes a pride in their garden.

Green door, what's that secret you're keepin'?

Haven't heard any old pianos being played hot round here in fact I've never seen any activity going on round here. This is or was and might still be a paint factory on Sculcoates Lane.

Here's some more green doors and  an old song  (well it's older then me).

Shelter

This is the other end of the snicket named Scott's Square. As I walked down I noticed what I thought was a some rubbish had been left in a black plastic bin liner that was just flapping in the wind that was funnelling down the passage. It occurred to me, because I read too many detective stories, that this would be a fine place to dump a body. Imagine my surprise when I came up close to find that there was indeed a body in the bag, a live one! I asked if he was OK and apologised for waking him up, he grunted something and I left him to his slumbers. I guess a man has a right to be left in peace.

You can find more monochrome images at the Weekend in Black & White here.

Old Town Blues

The latest piece of irritating frivolity from Hull City Council is to change the street signs in the old town to a blue background with white lettering, Quite what was wrong with the old black and white signs I don't know.  No doubt a highly paid consultant has come up with this wizard wheeze. Can you hear the stampede of visitors to see this latest attraction? No? Me neither.

Going, going, and soon to be gone

Oh dear, I read the just other day that the charity that runs the Arc design centre [ 1 ] otherwise known as (take a deep breath) the Humber Centre for Excellence in the Built Environment has been forced to close due to lack of funding. Practically before you could blink the 'building', which consists of five upturned caravans (see below), was up for sale by auction and sold off for £21,000. Given that it originally cost £750,000 that's no small amount of money gone down the proverbial. The buyer now has to dismantle all this and find somewhere to put it all back together again. 

The sparkling toad that used to sit outside here has already hopped it but then it is Spring and it probably has others things on its mind....