Humber Quays Plaza

Taken on Tuesday, a particularly wet and windy old day when not a soul apart from one man and his (very large) dog was to be met down by the Humber Quays. Though I got a bit wet and my hands turned purple with the chill I'd still much rather be out and about than stuck in one of these places.

You might like to visit these sites:
The Weekend in Black and White
Weekend Reflections
TR-black and White challenge

Cemetery Road

You might think that old bones could rest in peace without being troubled by the progress of the modern world. Well you need to think again. Here's Holy Trinity's burial ground on Castle Street, in use from 1784 to 1861 to take what might be called the overflow from HT's churchyard. It's a bit of a rundown neglected place often the haunt of drunks, drug addicts and the flotsam and jetsam of humanity. Many of the brick vaults are falling down, tombstones now lie strewn on the ground and ivy flourishes as it should in these places. In short it's how you'd expect a cemetery to be that hasn't been used for over a hundred and fifty years. Now the place is doomed to be cut in half by the proposed Castle Street improvements which will rip through what you see here. Up to 11,000 burials might be affected and they will all have to be exhumed and reburied elsewhere. It's reckoned it take over a year just to do this. Oh and say goodbye to the trees (and the roosting bats that live here) as well.

Komplete Control

The local phone/internet company's building has had a bit of a makeover. It used to look like this. Hardly a stunning improvement.

Readers of this blog may be aware that the local football ground is called the KC Stadium. Last week this local monopoly entered into a deal with Hull Kingston Rovers (a rugby league club, m'lud) and in so doing the name of HKR's ground, Craven Park, will now become KC Lightstream Stadium. Coming soon the deal to change Carr Lane to KC Street and Hull to KC City of Culture (it's already happening here).

Lift that gloom

Ring out the bells, strike up the band, etc etc. The news today is filled with facts and figure showing this scepter’d isle, this earth of majesty, is the fastest growing economy in Europe if not the whole world ... Difficult to believe as I shuffle round the deserted streets with boarded up shops and see the young folks going to sign on for their pittance; if this is the best then god help the rest.

This is looking across the marina entrance towards Holy Trinity on a day of driving showers and unremitting clouds.

Survival of the fittest

It was in March last year that I found it odd that there were two keep-fit establishments practically within spitting distance of each other. The locked gates and concrete road blocks are proof, if it were needed, that was only room for one after all.

Resting

East Park

Looking the other way from yesterday's post these are the ornamental flower beds that make such a colourful display in high Summer but are resting just now.

Winter trees

East Park, Hull

So far it's not been  much of a Winter to be honest more a prolonged slightly chilly Autumn with mild winds and bouts of rain. Hardly any frosts. It's been so mild I've not been wearing my trademark woolly hat.

The weekend can be seen in black and white here.

Could be any old street

Mersey Street is just an ordinary East Hull street of neat two-up two-down terraced houses most with their little satellite dishes. It runs off Holderness Road down to a primary school whose tower you can see in the distance. Oh there's the Croda wind powered generator lurking in the distance but other than that it's just a plain old street where nothing dramatic happens except this and sadly this and many, many years ago children from the school were involved in this but apart from all that, as far as I can tell, it's just an ordinary street but who can tell?.

The Bank

I'm guessing this particular bank on Holderness Road didn't suffer too much in the recent financial crises. This old Hull Savings Bank despite no longer taking deposits seems to have no liquidity problems.

James Stuart JP

I've passed this statue on Holderness Road hundreds of times and thought that this guy must at least have been a famous politician, an MP or some such. I mean just look at the size of the pedestal. Turns out he was just some local councillor, president of the East Hull Liberal Association no less. He started a firm producing seed oil which eventually became British Oil & Cake Mills Ltd. So a big fish in a small pond. He is said to have been active in improving education in Hull (a truly sisyphean task). Apart from this I've no idea what he, as opposed to any other local bigwig, did  to merit such a statue, paid for by one Thomas Ferens, he of the art gallery. Normally this chap is adorned with a traffic cone to keep his head warm in the Winter nights but it's been so mild lately he's cast it off.

Half open or half shut?

Cottingham council offices

The latest news is that East Riding Council looks likely to freeze its council tax bills for the next year whilst at the same time cutting spending by £23 million. So we're paying the same but getting less in return, so no change there then. We don't know what little extras the parish council will come up with to pay for the flowers in the street and the increasingly objectionable Cottingham Day extravaganza. If government wanted to find a cut that would meet with almost universal approval then abolishing parish councils would be a sure winner. 

The Simpsons

Not Springfield, I'm afraid, but Spring Bank. 

Silos

Taken by Margot K Juby

These are the flour silos for Jackson's bakery near Spring Bank. If you like the smell of baking bread then you should hang around this spot as there's often a yummy yeasty  aroma to the air. Mind you that is the best part of Jackson's bread which is, like most factory made stuff, tasteless industrial rubber fit only to be thrown to the ducks.

Fool me once ...

I must admit when I first saw this glove I thought someone had left it behind that is until I tried to pick it up. It's made of iron and welded to the arm of the bench. This is in Beverley, the town that brings you hanging jerkins and jester's caps as part of its tourist trail.

The weekend in black and white is here.

Rainbow of sorts

For some reason my camera doesn't do rainbows so well. They turn out pale almost invisible. This is easily the best I've managed. If there's any truth in there being a pot of gold at the end of these things then I know just where to dig.

Yet more trees

Working on the principle that you can't have too many trees here's some more of the mile long stretch of plane trees on Cottingham Road. This bunch are by the entrance to the University. Plane trees are credited with cleaning up air pollutants which get  trapped in the bark which is then shed on the ground. They also shed fine leaf hairs during the Summer which some (that would be me) find irritating causing sneezing.

Danish Buildings

On High Street at the junction with Scale Lane Staithe, Danish Buildings was designed by William Botterill, a leading architect in Victorian Hull. I've no idea what its original purpose was, I could guess trade of some sort or other. Nowadays it has been split into units for the so-called creative industries.

Dockside buildings

As the evening descends on the old dockside buildings the place looks almost attractive.

The Weekend in Black and White is upon us again, here.

And Weekend Reflections is here.

Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

Beckett's encouraging words came to my mind when I read in the local paper the glad tidings (or sad news if you wish) that this beacon of 1960's design on Bond Street is destined to be demolished. This sprawling concrete edifice was meant to be the first part of a much grander scheme involving yet more concrete on the opposite side of the street with the two parts linked via a bridge. But as "half assed" are the first two words learnt round here it was (thankfully, some may say) never completed. For some reason the council has ended up owning it and it stands almost completely empty. The largest tenant is, ironically, the council's very own planning department, I know you're shocked to learn that there is a planning department ... Anyhow the council now wishes to sell it for re-development along with the street itself which could be narrowed as it's "underused". As I mentioned at the start my source for all this is a newspaper so take the above with a large pinch of salt.

Shovette

Nice name for a push tug, Shovette, here moored for some reason by the horse wash.

Lambert

I'm wondering, in that way that means I really don't care either way, whether this is the Lambert that Lambert Street is named after. I'm also mildly puzzled how such a heavy tombstone could get shifted. Either we have very strong vandals or Mr Lambert has been trying to get out ... 

A contender for boring photo of the year award?

I know, I know, another blue plaque, so blue, so boring but the story behind it is far from dull ...

Hull's link with the doomed ship Forfarshire is that it left Hull for Dundee a two days before the captain, John Humble, decided to put up the sails after the engines had failed rather than put into port and wait out the North-easterly gale that was to push the ship onto the rocks with much loss of life. It wasn't the first wreck nor yet the last and is only remembered now for the heroic deeds of young Grace Darling who put out to sea in the raging storm rescue some of the stranded folks. Those of you not familiar with the full story may like to visit this excellent site here.

This plaque, put up on the 150^th anniversary, is close to the old steam packet wharf from where the fated ship departed. The picture of the paddle steamer Forfarshire below appeared on the local paper's site and is of a painting in the Ferens art gallery.

Twitter-light Connections

Taken by Margot K Juby

My thanks to Margot for this, taken while I simply wanted to get home and put my feet up after a trek to Chanterlands Avenue last month and was feeling ever so slightly grumpish. I take responsibility for turning a rosy red sunset into monochrome.

The Weekend in Black and White has more and probably much better monochromes here. 

Twitter-light an old word that needs reviving.

A rare and world-renowned organ

These colourful pipes are part of Holy Trinity's "rare and world-renowned organ", the largest such parish organ in the land, so I'm informed. (I'm tempted to say size isn't everything when dealing with organs, but I rise above juvenile distraction). Don't ask me how it sounds since I've not heard anyone playing it. The church's website does, however, have a rather odd video of someone playing the Star Wars theme; should you be tempted it's here.

Did you know there was a national pipe organ register or that there was a British Institute for Organ Studies? Well you do now and here's all the technical stuff and more that you could possibly want to know on this impressive instrument.

PS. It's just been pointed out to me that this instrument is "reported playable but in poor condition" bit of a shame that. The church is today passing the begging bowl around for funds so if you've a spare bob in your pocket they take it off your hands.

29 Park Street

This used to be the Silhouette Club after it moved from Spring Bank in about 1990 then Spectrum then something to do with hypnosis. Now it's available to let. Behind that gaudy decoration I suspect a fine Victorian villa still lurks.

Last Year's Best

It being the day that it is it's time to chose the best of last year's efforts for City Daily Photo's theme day. I was going to show this one  as some kind of metaphor for being stuck in this place in the fog with the lights on amber but I thought that's way too self-indulgent (even for me) so here's a pretty Morning Glory. This has all the advantages of being bright, colourful and not in Hull.

You can see what other's thought of this theme here.

End of the year

The setting sun going down over Greenwood Avenue. This is one those interminable roads that service the North Hull Estate, a place that seems to have been designed by someone with a penchant for triangles and circles and where the roads seem not to head in any direction you want to go. I was only there to pick up a package from the Post Office ("We close at four, you know"). Took this on the way back with Margot's phone, not bad for a phone I thought.

So that's enough of 2013, not the best of years though any year you can see the end of can't be all bad. Happy New Year to anyone who reads this.

Abandoned Car Wash

As the year drifts off to its wet and windy close I thought a nice cheerful picture of abandonment was in order. The buildings in the background belong to the Reckitt's factory. Reckitt's have been in Hull since 1840 on that site on Dansom Lane, back then it was just a rented starch mill now the company is known as Reckitt Benckiser and produces a vast range of stuff from health and cleaning products to condoms and mustard.  

Another look at Prince Street

I've been going through some old photos since I've not been out and about getting any new ones and came upon these of Prince Street. Don't know why I didn't post them before when I had the chance. With its cobble stones and painted Georgian houses this street has, to me, an slightly unreal feel about it, a bit like a film set. It features in all the tourist 'must see when in Hull' lists and it doesn't disappoint. 

Blistering Barnacles!

Another in the long running non-series of fishy footpath plaques [ 1 ]; this one near the Minerva. Devotees of a well known Belgian cartoon character will no doubt recognise the catchphrase and so identify the fish. Others can look up the Latin.

St Stephen's Day

St Stephen's Day, the day after Christmas, signals the start of a rush to the shops to buy all those things you don't need with money you haven't got. At least that is the dream of the retailers. It is also known as Boxing Day presumably for the number of spontaneous boxing matches held in the overcrowded car parks of the area. Other odd things that happen on this day include hundreds of otherwise sane people splashing about in the cold sea (for charity, we are told), near where I was brought up they have sword-dancing and in some parts of Ireland wrens go in peril ... I feel sure there are lots more silly things going on in the world; as for me I shall be having my Christmas dinner today since I didn't feel like having it yesterday.   So Season's Greetings to one and all.

Weakest Link

Exceptional conditions show up the vulnerable spots in any defense. So it was earlier this month when the highest tide ever recorded breached Hull's defenses at this spot by the Albert Dock. There's local dispute as to whether or not the dock gates failed but what is known is that the dock quay was overtopped by a couple of feet and water rushed across town as far as Ferensway. There's another predicted spring tide round about New Year's Day, let's hope there's no low pressure system wandering down the North Sea at that time.

Use Alternative Routes

Those that make these sort of decisions chose the week before Christmas to suture one of the already sclerotic arteries that feed and drain the cyanotic city of Hull. As a result there have been daily thromboses in the western approaches. Radical surgery may be needed to by-pass the whole gangrenous mess. The patient remains in intensive care ...

The season of goodwill to all men ...

...with some exceptions, perhaps.

Collateral Damage

In that continuation of politics by other means that went by the name of World War Two a bomb dropped by a German aircraft landed here on Beverley Road and neatly destroyed a house leaving this gap. I don't know if there were any casualties in this case though many hundreds did die in the air raids. It's an all too common sight in Hull to see a row of houses with an odd gap often grassed over or filled with a modern building, where a home has been wiped out by war. This just one of thousands in Hull destroyed or damaged and Hull just one of the hundreds of towns and cities across the world blighted by the failure of politicians to do their job without recourse to high explosive. Only today I read that  this destruction goes on in dirty little wars in far away places that we now fight by remote control from airbases in Lincolnshire. 

Red Sky at Night

Ever had an afternoon hunting for the unobtainable in the shops, well I've just had one of those. I took this as I wended my weary way home this evening. Those old plane trees on Cottingham Road make impressive silhouettes now they've finally lost their leaves. Oh and forget that saying about a red sky at night being a shepherd's delight because the forecast for tomorrow is wet and windy. 

J R R Tolkien: who he?

I've got to admit to a guilty secret; I've never read anything written by J R R Tolkien. Just about everyone I know has read LOTR and/or the Hobbit but somehow tales of hobbits, elves, Middle Earth and whatnot just left me cold. Anyhow I've heard he's big box-office these days with a new piece just released, needless to say I haven't seen the films either, I'm truly an uncultured yob. This new blue plaque was put in place on the Dennison Centre, Cottingham Road,  part of the University, after someone did a bit of detective work and figured that was the building where he convalesced. Quite how that is significant I can't imagine. No doubt this tenuous link will play part in the upcoming Year of Culture. Speaking of which there's a charming tale of Hull City football fans taunting visiting supporters with chant's of "You're only here for the culture". What a fine city!

Smiles all round

A year ago I posted about this shop. It was empty, had been for quite some time and, well given the rents asked, looked likely to stay that way. Well look at it now, all spruced up and open for business. I had to smile to see it so and I smiled even more when I found out what 'Šypsena' means. 

A stroll in the park

Paid an end of year visit to East Park partly to check if the goosanders have arrived (they have) and partly because East Park is never dull even on a damp and dreary December afternoon. And so it was that my progress was halted by a long file of greylags taking their evening promenade in such an orderly fashion along this tree lined avenue.

Price of petrol

Chanterlands Avenue

There was a time when petrol was sold by the good old imperial gallon. I remember my father moaning many, many years ago that the price of a gallon was threatening to rise to five shillings (25p in the new money)! Now we've all supposedly gone metric but just about the only things sold by litres are wine and petrol. So the price you see here is 130.9p for a litre of the smelly stuff. How they pay that 0.9p is a mystery known only to accountants. A quick back of the packet of cigarettes calculation makes that £6.26 a gallon. I shudder to think what the Aged P would make of that. As you all know I don't drive so I don't care.

The Stadium Church

Sitting at the junction of the Boulevard and Anlaby Road this is St Matthew's church. It was built in 1870 to accommodate the expanding city's spiritual needs. Whether or not it managed that I don't know but it's still open for business after all these years unlike many other Victorian churches built at that time. The church's website informs me that it has a special ministry for sport and also for the annual Hull Fair. The church has taken to calling itself the Stadium Church due its closeness to the KC Stadium though the latter has far bigger (all paying) congregations.