The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

Over the past few days I've posted from various points on Castle Street today I've reached the end with the junction of Waterhouse Lane and this scaffold clad remains known as Castle Buildings or Castle Street Chambers depending on where you look. It's a Grade 2 listed former office block probably connected with the foundry that used to operate from Princes Dock in the mid 19^th century. Anyhow it's under protection and was, I think, being restored and so was wrapped up under plastic sheeting as you see in the top photo taken about three years ago. That is until a mighty storm ripped up the sheeting and completely destroyed it leaving it to thole the winter's sleety dribble, an' cranreuch cauld as it were. 

And, looking forward at the prospect dreary, if I've read the plans for Castle Street's 'improvement' correctly then this place and the Earl de Grey which is close by are both due for demolition. Some might say not before time.

Myton Gate

In 1322 the city of Hull was granted the right to collect murage, a tax to build and repair the city walls. Within thirty or so years the city was surrounded by walls on all sides except on the river Hull. There were five main entrances through which traffic could pass, North Gate, Beverley Gate, Myton Gate, Hessle Gate and Watergate. (I know the plaque says four but just because a gate leads to the city dump doesn't mean you can ignore it). You can get an idea of how the walls looked from the title picture at the top of this blog. The walls and gates were maintained up until the establishment of the Hull Dock Company in 1774, the next few years saw the demolition of all these medieval defences. I couldn't find any accurate contemporary images of Myton Gate, the image below comes from a series drawn in 1951 by somebody called T Armstrong and is on display in the robing room of the Guildhall. I cannot vouch for its accuracy.

This plaque is on a converted warehouse at the Castle Street end of Princes Dock. I've posted bits of this building before here and here.

From Hull Museums Collection

Fish Street: now and then

Fish Street runs south from Holy Trinity church to Castle Street. Local artist Frederick Schultz Smith in 1889 must have been standing in more or less the same spot as me when he drew the picture below. I focused on the large Victorian former warehouse at the end as the street itself is just two monotonous rows of rabbit hutch social housing put up in the 1990s (modern houses are nearly half the size of houses built in the early 20th century). Back in 1889 this was a street of varied houses, hotels and even a church and many different trades operated from the street though even then the expansion of the city westward meant this area had started to decline. Nothing stands still and if the plans for Castle Street go ahead Fish Street will be blocked off at the southern end making it a cul-de-sac.

From Hull Museum Collections

One bridge or three?

Well it had to happen I suppose. After years of delays and moans and groans from all who have any contact at all  with Castle Street the Government have finally said that money (esti­mated cost of the project is £129 mil­lion to £192 mil­lion!) will definitely be spent on improving this road. The plans, as I understand it, are to lower the level of the road and build pedestrian bridges across. But work won't start 'til at least 2015 and as the saying goes there's many a slip twixt cup and lip. Speaking of slips, the question has arisen as to whether to have one big extra wide 'land bridge' or three smaller ones. The Council are pushing for the former (they are calling it 'iconic', which is always a worry) and a 'developer's tax' (aka community infrastructure levy) might be imposed by Hull Council to pay for some of this. That sounds to me like well if not exactly killing the goose that lays the golden eggs then at least taking a bucket of the auriferous corn.

5 Scale Lane

This small and rather unimpressive building is Hull's oldest domestic building according to the blue plaque and this website. Despite, or perhaps due to, having an awful punning name this business seems to have failed as did the "Hurry Curry" enterprise that preceded it.

Ultimate Shopping Experience

Try as I might I cannot understand what an "ultimate shopping experience" might be. Is it, I ask myself, when you go to the shop and it actually has in stock all the items you require and all prices have been reduced by 50%? No? Well then enlighten me ....

Red

Many years ago I had a short stay in Paris. I thought I'd go to the Louvre. But it was Tuesday and it was shut. Today I finally found this small art gallery on Osborne Street. But it was Tuesday and it was shut. Hmmmm

There's a website for this place here.

Time's up

Some may not appreciate an undertaker's clock ticking away the minutes of their life. Doesn't bother me that much.

Taken by Margot K Juby

Beckside

Not having anything new to offer I've raided my archives for this view of the head of Beverley Beck with the minster peeking out at the back. It was taken in early January 2009 so it's almost antique.

East Park Lake

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Weekend Reflections are here.

Business School

This is one of three similar buildings surrounding a sunken lawn and rose garden that make up Hull University Business School. Originally these buildings were a teacher training college producing much needed educators to enlighten the youth of this country and lead them out of the pernicious evils of illiteracy and ignorance. Now it produces those jacks-of-all-trades-and-masters-of-none known as managers (see below). Still there's no shortage of applicants willing to cough £9,000 a year to "develop the capacity to recognise the connections that make a difference and think creatively to lead change in a responsible way, whatever their role on the global business stage". Well they talk a good talk I'll give them that.

As I was taking this shot a horny-handed son of toil who happened to be passing commented  "That'll make a pretty picture". I couldn't agree more.

manager n 1: An egotistic lemming, often with delusions of competency, able to leap small bandwagons with a single phrase. 2. One who occupies one’s time with meetings, seminars, and training, thereby keeping oneself out of the way of people who are actively trying to accomplish something. the revised devil's dictionary

Segal's Law

"A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure" 

Both clocks were wrong it was twenty past three when I took this.

Nosey

Seems the smaller the gap the more interesting the goings-on on the other side ... I seem to have run out of interesting pictures and so am reduced to working with animals ....

Scrapped Yard

Now even the old scrap yard has gone. I think there are plans for a shopping centre on this site at the western end of Holderness Road.

Yellow Skip

Ever had one of those strange unsettling dreams where you're walking through a familiar place but everything seems slightly strange and altered? Welcome to Holderness Road where the shops are still there but most of them are closed and in some cases totally gutted. It getting beyond depressing it's becoming spooky.

Green House

Here's a place that seen many uses over the years. The bit on the right is the remains of a Presbyterian church schoolroom. The church, I've read, was an imposing yellow brick building with its own tram stop at the rear! It was knocked down in the 1970's and the nondescript shed built in its place. The first I saw of this place it had been painted all over in a rather dull green and was functioning as a pub called The Green Man. Then it was a ten pin bowling alley for a while before just recently becoming a dance academy. This verdant building is more or less directly opposite yesterday's blue house. It's not always so colourful on Holderness Road.

The Blue House

I took this because blue houses are such a rare sight in Hull, almost a threatened species. Although now it's offices originally this must have been a very large residential property and old maps show a small garden where that man is standing. If blue is your thing then this is at the corner of Wilton Street and Holderness Road.

Look your last

Here in all its monochrome glory stands the St Marks Street gas holder. Erected in the mid 1890's by the magnificently named Sutton, Southcoates and Drypool Gas Company this, we are told, no longer serves any useful purpose and so on Monday the wreckers will arrive with long shears to pull it down. It clearly serves no purpose to those who view is limited to the balance sheet and the bottom line. It was built in the days before welding and every inch (and I do mean every inch) is riveted together and that must have taken a hell of a lot of work.

Now I've mentioned before that there are naughty boys and girls who will explore places that ordinary people usually leave well alone. So here is a link to this place at night when nobody else is around (here)

My thanks to @Hoga4 for bringing this imminent demise to my attention.

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Demon Barber

I didn't notice any pie shops close by this barbers on Holderness Road ...

A Piece of Advice

I got a bit of a shock when I saw this place closed. Surely, I thought, they can't have abolished Citizens Advice along with the rest of public services but a small notice by the door informs me that the Citizens Advice Bureau has moved from Charlotte Street Mews to the Wilson Building on Alfred Gelder Street. So at least for the time being we still have this small mercy.

Flabbergasted

Taken by Margot K Juby

Oh dear missed it again!

Shop window

This newsagent and deli on Grimston Street was as I recall a bread shop many years back. It had what can only be described as a minimalist approach to window dressing. If you were lucky there might be a lone can of Fanta or some such sitting alluringly in all that window space, the rest was bare. How they got any passing trade to enter was beyond me. Anyhow we now have lace curtains and it's selling all the essentials from ciggies to sarnies.

Water rip-off

Once upon a  time, long, long ago, water was supplied by philanthropic means through public fountains and cattle troughs like this one on High Street [ 1 ]. Nowadays, thanks to the bounty that is 'free market capitalism' we pay on average £368 per year for water and nearly a third of that goes as profit to the private equity firm that has swallowed up the water business in Yorkshire.

Facade

Here's the new Trinity House School building on George Street. It may look new but it's basically a facelift of the old University of Lincoln building that I showed a while back, here. Amazing what cladding can do! The squat rectangular building on the right is new and seems to be striving to take dull to a new level.

Teeth replaced while you wait

This old style gold sign has been promoting this business for at least thirty years and probably much longer than that. It's on Jarratt Street should your gnashers ever need a repair.

Street Lights

This triplet of spherical lamps illuminate King Edward Street. The background is the BHS mural that I showed a long time ago here.

City Daily Photo's theme this month is street lights, catch the latest postings here.

"Even the mud is beautiful." Yeah, right ...

Here, for completeness, is the view from the new swing bridge looking south towards Myton Bridge and the flood defence thingy. 

I've heard of plays, films and books and so on being reviewed but never a bridge; that is until I came across a piece on the Guardian website reviewing the new Scale Lane Bridge. It's full of the usual meaningless reviewspeak phrases, "As well as being a place, it's an event ..."(?), "Scale Lane bridge is not just a way of getting from A to B, but something in itself. "(???) and the usual 'Hull is really a dump but we're not allowed to say so' comments, "Hull is the city whose misfortune is to sit on a word ladder between dull and hell, and whose associations with Philip Larkin and John Prescott link it to misery and unloveliness, most of which negativity is unfair."(Oh no it's not!) What is missing is any sense of the sheer ugliness of the thing, the massive waste of money and it's complete and utter uselessness apart from being a place to take pictures like this. 

OK rant over.

Arctic Corsair

Here's another view of the old trawler Arctic Corsair moored, if that's the right word for a boat that's firmly stuck in the mud, by the museum quarter. This is taken from Hull's new swing bridge which has already acquired its own reputation for attracting ne'er-do-wells; some have been reported jumping into the river during hot weather. Personally I say leave them there, better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won't drown.

Propping up the bank

This former bank on the corner of Pendrill Street and Beverley Road has been empty for years. It's been propped up even longer ever since a bomb landed next door during that little local difficulty we had with our German friends some time back. For those who like a sense of geographical completeness this is opposite the Aldi store I posted last week.

More marble and mosaic

Well here's the picture I was taking the other day when I was interrupted by our friends from eastern Europe. This is yet another old Jackson's store, now Sainsbury's, showing the marble and mosaic facade that was such a common feature of these stores. There I told you it was boring.

You take our picture?

So I'm taking a fairly boring picture on Newland Avenue when suddenly my camera, which has face recognition, goes crazy as these two guys were bobbing up and down in front of me. Would I take their picture? Why, of course! Turns out they were Polish and had clearly been enjoying a Friday afternoon in July and might have little recollection of this. 

I'll show the boring picture tomorrow.

Capital P

At the corner of Princes Avenue and Spring Bank the newly painted and recently relaunched Pearsons pub is all that it appears to be. A late 1990's attempt at the 1870's Victorian look that fails miserably; so that what was an attempt to blend in becomes quite an eyesore. Better to have built something modern than this throwback. The pub originally opened as the Old Zoological which was also a bit cheeky considering the original Zoological built in about 1840/50 (and a right old dive if ever there was one) was demolished several years before this newcomer.

The Weekend in Black and White begins here.

Trojan

I saw this on Anlaby Road and thought how our American friends might smile at how we are divided by a common language.

High Street

I have posted several of the buildings on this street so it's about time for a wider view. This narrow little street was once the busy centre of the city of Hull before the docks were built. The river and old harbour lie behind the buildings on the left. It's always had a reputation as a lively place, in olden days with merchants, sailors, prostitutes and press gangs and nowadays with the Friday and Saturday night revellers who throng the many bars and pubs in the area.

There is no grass on Terry Street

Here's the Aldi store on Terry Street. It opened in the mid 1990's, I used to live in a flat directly behind it. In contrast to the Jackson's store I posted the other day this lacks any fine ornamentation, it's just a very large brick shed. What it lacks in finery though it massively gains in the vast array of goods on sale, far more than Jackson's almost pokey little shop could possibly hope to offer and cheaper too. Living on a tight budget I think I can do without the marble and the mosaic and, any way, I no longer have to look at this shop every day.

If the title has got you wondering if I've gone a bit mad in all this heat it's from A Removal from Terry Street by Douglas Dunn. The line always used to make me laugh because, when I first moved to Hull, this site used to be a large grassy area, indeed there was little but grass on Terry Street in those days after demolition and before the rebuild. 

The Avenues

Not Hull's better known Avenues, that collection of tree-lined Victorian streets to the west of Pearson Park, these avenues lack trees or even a road. This pair of 'avenues' are to be found on High Street and consist of an L-shaped properties that wrap around a  corner building. I supposed they were developed from the alley ways that pervade this area. The one above is near Bishop Lane while the one below is next to the Olde Black Boy on the corner of Scale Lane.

Food Experts

One of the 114 Jackson's stores sold off to Sainsubury's in 2004. This one on Inglemire Lane was surplus to requirements and promptly closed. The marbled facade with mosaic signage was a feature of many of these stores though here it seems not to have impressed the local vandals.

Meditations on Mud and Myton Bridge

One of the features of the river Hull as it approaches the Humber is the large accumulations of muddy silt on the banks. Presumably when the river was busier this would have been dredged but as hardly anything of any size now uses the river it has been left to its own devices with the result you see here. Upstream the silting means that there is barely room for one barge to navigate the channel. Clearly if the river is going to feature as an attraction this cannot go on. The mud banks are impressive but they are a worrying symptom of neglect. Understandably there is little incentive to clear up the river any  time soon but there is really no time to lose to clear up the mess that is Castle Street which crosses the river here at Myton Bridge. The Government has said the money is available and plans are being drawn up and work will start, if ever, in 2015 and last for  four years.(Imagine four years of road works on one of the busiest roads in the country, that is even now prone to gridlock at the drop of a hub cap.) I think Hull might have been consumed by the mud before that particular problem is solved.

For more monochrome delights visit the Weekend in Black and White.

Cop Shop

Here's the facade of Humberside Police's new headquarters. If (and it's a big if) we are to believe the figures issued just yesterday Humberside has one of the highest crimes rates in the country, but the number of crimes fell by an astonishing 11% last year. Just as well that they did because Humberside Police now has its lowest number of officers since it started, losing 60 in the last six months. A cynic might correlate the fall in crime with the fall in police numbers but I'm not that sort of guy, no sir ...Oh and we are promised even more cuts in funding at this rate crime will simply be unfunded out of existence. 

Maister House

Maister House on High Street is an 18th century merchants house. Built, or rather rebuilt, in 1743 after a fire. The rather plain facade is, I'm reliably informed, a typical feature of Palladian architecture. It is owned by the National Trust and you can go inside and look at the staircase and other bits and bobs should that be your desire. OK, I confess most of this comes from a neat little web page here which has more information including pictures of inside the building. One day I might step inside and see what's what.

Anyone lost a glove?

Taken by Margot K Juby

Who wears gloves like this in July? Maybe the owner's hands got too hot or they could no longer abide the sheer vibrant purpleyness of them. Anyhow this glove sits on a fence and points skywards, lost and unwanted.

Reach for the stars

Taken by Margot K Juby

A graffito on a house wall on Cottingham Road.