Sign of authority

Tucked away in a little brick hut and behind steel grills the harbour master's office near Drypool bridge is a reminder that, from the Humber to the northern boundary of the city of Hull, the navigation authority on the river Hull is Hull City Council. HCC's website informs us that "A harbour master is on duty from three hours before high water (HW) Hull (Albert Dock) until HW or later if required, except Sundays" and that the HM is responsible for the operation of the movable bridges that link both halves of this fair city. Actually I don't think the harbour master works from this building any more as his/her address is the Guildhall, Alfred Gelder Street, and given that hardly any navigating seems to go on nowadays the post must almost be a sinecure. 

Festive fun

And how did you spend your Christmas morning? Why trying to identify this fungus since you ask. And did you succeed in your mycological quest? Erm, no. The best I can come up with is that it's a bracket fungi (well, d'oh!) possibly an Alder Bracket though, as all the guides say, identification is tricky.  These guys are sprouting out of that dead chestnut tree I posted a while back on the 'decay' theme day .

Here they are with a bit of colour.

The weekend in black and white should be here if it hasn't been consumed by all the seasonal goings-on.

Dolls are for life and not just for Christmas

Thank you Margot for this image of poor neglected Louise.

Umbúðamiðlun

Umbúðamiðlun translates as packing media which makes a kind of sense. Here the Icelanders and Norwegians seems to have the fish crate market stitched up between them on Bridlington's fish quay.

"Oh look! Here comes Dick with his pussy ..."

Pub sign on Commercial Road, Hull

I don't know if it's a particularly British thing but at this time of year most towns, villages and cities will have at least one pantomime show on offer. They may have differing titles such as Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Aladdin or Dick Whittington but essentially they are just the same old morality tale of good overcoming bad. The lead male is for some reason usually played by a woman and there's usually an old dame played by a man, all for comic effect (ha ha ha). Scripts are updated, no, updated is not the word since the jokes are as old as the world, to include scurrilous comments and innuendos about current events and personalities. Filthy puns are de rigueur , the filthier the better. There is always a sing-along with the lyrics somehow displayed on stage. If your panto doesn't include a prolonged session of "Oh no it isn't!" from the stage and an audience reply of "Oh yes it is!" then you should ask for a refund ... 

The only panto I've actually been to starred, if that is the word, the Shadows at Stockton ABC that was way, way back in around 1962. I think it may have been the mental scars from this experience that put me off all things 'festive' ever since. 

North Bridge

After two hundred and fifty years or so of going by ferry across the river the good citizens of Hull decided to move with the times and invest in the new-fangled technology, a bridge. As the bridge replaced the North Ferry it naturally became known as the North Bridge. Quite what the ferry men thought of this early example of displacement by new technology and subsequent loss of trade is not recorded. That was back in the boom times of 1541 and obviously the bridge has been rebuilt several times since then; the latest being in the late 1920's when this was put across a few yards further north than the previous bridge. The remains of that bridge are still just about visible next to this converted warehouse.

The Weekend in Black & White is here.

Listed buildings and respectability

A long while ago I was upbraided for referring to Midland Street as being "seedy". Did I not know that respectable people lived there and that there were two listed buildings in the neighbourhood and no fewer than five churches? Well actually I did not know that (about the buildings and churches, that is, I am well aware that the area's reputation is wholly undeserved and only saints and God fearing folk live in these parts) nor, to be honest, did I care much. 

Anyhow to make some sort of belated amends here are the two listed buildings, the front one with the odd tower is Owbridge Court, built 1895 as a cough mixture factory making Owbridge's Lung Tonic (I kid you not), the building's other name is the Laboratory!. The tonic was a mixture of chloroform, honey and alcohol and, as it said on the bottle, it never fails; just don't give it to babes under six months of age! In the distance is Turner Court originally built as model dwellings for working people in the 1860's and now flats owned by the William Sutton Trust and home to some, no doubt, very respectable people.

Klokketårn

This is the Danish Sailors' Church of  St Nikolaj on the corner of Osborne Street and Ferensway. This 1950's building replaced a Victorian building on the other side of the street destroyed in the bombing of Hull during the last war. There are bells in this tower but I've never heard them ring. 

The Rank House

I posted about this house on Holderness Road some three years ago,(here). It was once the home of J Arthur Rank, he of the films that began with a man and a gong. I mentioned then that it was in a bit of a state. Well now it's being repaired and restored for social housing. In the story I read it was expected that the first tenants would be in by the end of this year, it looks like they'll have get a move on to achieve that. Still, let's keep our quibbling to a minimum.

Green Bricks in the dark

Bleurgh! I'm feeling a bit like death warmed up at the moment so I'll just post this gloomy little scene and retire for a while with a warm drink and a bottle of aspirin, morituri te salutant....

Christmas Sucks

Oh, give me a noose I can hang from the tree

I need no excuse to end my misery

this holiday season is all the more reason to die.

Oh, pull up a stool lend an ear to a fool

who once found some solace in the season of yule

this holiday season is all the more reason to cry.

I put on my mittens, one green and one red

and I walk alone where they bury the dead

the snow falls as I grieve its a gothic death rock

christmas eve.

The bottle is empty,

the sleigh has a flat,

the stripper in my bed is ugly and fat,

her tassles are tangled and what's worse - my jingle won't jangle.

This time of the year makes me sick to my guts

all this good cheer is a pain in the nuts

when it's your career to be down in the dumps

tidings of comfort and joy really suck.

I feel like St. Nicholas is pulling my leg

this thing we call Christmas is a sorry black plague

this holiday season is....

... all the more reason to die

Peter Murphy & Tom Waits (allegedly)

Click and Collect

This appeared just down the road a few weeks ago. It's a safe for parcels to be dropped off and then you come along and collect at your convenience. With all this internet shopping and so forth I suppose it saves having to organise redelivery if you are out when the postman calls. I have to say I've not seen anyone actually use it as yet.

East Park

As I often do at this time of year I visited East Park to see if the goosanders had arrived but I didn't see any. However I have heard that there several at another park over in west Hull maybe they just fancied a change of scenery. There were still plenty of seagulls on the lookout for a free lunch.

The weekend in black and white has snooken up on us again and it's here.

A Playground in December

When that I was and a little tiny boy,

    With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,

A foolish thing was but a toy,

    For the rain it raineth every day.

At risk of sounding like a old codger what, I ask, is wrong with the youth of today? The first sign of a hint of chill in the air and no-one goes out to play.(Indeed does anyone go out to play in the park any more without some parent traipsing along to spoil the fun?) And what's with all that soft knee-friendly dirt surrounding those health-and-safety-approved slides and swings? Where is the broken glass, the concrete, the dog muck, the rusty squeaky Witch's hat and the vicious turntable ride that went faster and faster 'til you were flung off, dizzy and disoriented to graze your knees and the palms of your hands yet again? Ah just one more spin before it's time to go home...

Splash Boat

In 1923 the council decided to build a splash boat and spent £1400 on materials and £474 2s 5d on building the tower so that folk can enjoy, yes that is word used, enjoy the experience of dropping 22 feet into the lake's welcoming waters aboard a small boat. Seems a simple enough pleasure. It is, of course, only a Summer thing, even the hardy folk of the City of Culture draw the line at splashing into ice.

When I first came to Hull it had been out of order for years but a heritage lottery funded renovation means that it works again or rather did work again until just the other day when vandals did thousands of pounds of damage. Even being a listed building doesn't protect from the anti-social brigade.

I was sure I had posted a picture of this before and indeed I have it's here.

Silver and Green Ginger

At the corner of Silver Street and Land of Green Ginger site this imposing pile of Portland stone built in 1873. No prizes for guessing it was once a bank, the Natwest bank in fact. Since the banking crisis means banks no longer have any need for savers to put real money in, they simply get their 'cash' from the Bank of England at zero charge, they have no need of expensive branches like this so it's been sold off. I've read that an application for permission for change of use to a "restaurant" and "drinking establishment" (I like that phrase even if it's yet another trendy wine bar!) has been made. I heard today that the much vaunted trickle down effect hasn't worked, but with all the coffee bars and boozers round here I think the trickle might become a flood ...

Streets paved with gold

Trinity House Lane

Christmas Twee

Red and green? Check. Tree? Check. Gold decorations and seasonal lights? Check. Advent candles? Check. Little gifts under the tree? Check. Hint of religious overtones (but don't over do it)? Check
OK that's Christmas sorted....

As I battled my way through the massed hordes of Baron Samedi's zomby army in town the other day it was nice to find this calm retreat where the true meaning of the end-of-year festival was being celebrated. You see it's all about tree worship ....

Irenic

Here's today's offering of  lights on the Humber's placid waters. Tomorrow I might find something colourful, who knows?

The weekend in black and white is happening here.
Weekend reflections are going on over here.

 Blogger tells me this is the 1500^th posting I've made, I should get a life.

C is for Cloud

... and also for cold which is what the weather bods have told us it will be for the next few days. When I say 'cold' I mean, of course, British 'cold' not your sub-zero nonsense that others have to endure. C could also be for conspiracy but this is just an innocent little passing cloud and means you no harm, honest.

Fancy Font

As vaguely promised a few weeks ago here is the font of Beverley Minster with its elaborate cover dangling above it. The font itself is of marble from County Durham and dates from about 1070 so they say. The baroque carved lid is from 1726  by the Thornton family. Why did they need such an artefact? Why to stop people stealing the holy water, of course, you never know what sacrilegious nonsense they might put it to. It's a huge hideous object but as it was a gift I suppose the church could hardly turn it down.

Plain Ceiling

When I was posting about Beverley Minster a few months back I somehow forgot to show you the ceiling which, compared to Holy Trinity's in Hull, is a rather plain affair. I think on the whole I prefer this simpler decoration.

Computers? They'll never catch on ...

First proper computer I bought cost best part of £900 had a pathetic amount memory and disk space and was incredibly slow but this was before broadband, wi-fi and pre-Google and Facebook. It had Windows95 on it and was fond of giving a blue screen of death if the weather so much as changed slightly. By modern standards it was an abacus. It came from a company called Tiny who had store here on Ferensway. Days after the machine arrived Tiny went bankrupt as did so many successors and this store has been empty for years now. So although 21 million homes in the UK have a computer and access to the internet where ever they are getting their kit from it isn't from here.

Punnets, two for a pound!

"I love work,it fascinates me,I can sit and watch it for hours"

Jerome K. Jerome

For this month's City Daily Photo theme day of 'people in their workplace' I give you this slightly cheeky example of wardrobe malfunction known as Builder's Bum or Plumbers Butt or worse depending on low you wish to go ... best not eh!

They say the early bird catches the worm but if you want real cheap strawberries turn up late just as he's closing shop and desperate to get rid of 'em ....

Jacob Bronoswki

Who he; do I hear you say? Or maybe: oh him, I remember him and his unbelievable, interminable, meliorist, nay almost utopian TV series and book entitled, with absolutely no sense of irony, The Ascent of Man. Yeah him. Seems this man who knew everything once had a job teaching maths at the University of Hull and I suppose he had to lodge somewhere so this place on Hallgate in Cottingham was his home. During his time here he was, as a Polish-Jewish immigrant, of course given the usual warm welcome this country remains famous for and duly put under surveillance by the security services. That sort of thing wouldn't happen these days now would it?

Humber highlights

Riverhead Apartments, Driffield

Nothing much changes or so it seems at this place. It was just like this when I first came here nearly half a century ago. Maybe the warehouse apartment developments are newish but it looks much the same.

The weekend seems to have crept up on us again. See it in black and white here. Or see its reflection here.

Expect Delays

I may have mention once or twice the problem that is Castle Street and that money had been agreed for a grand plan to alleviate some of the mess that is caused by funnelling a motorway into a inner-city dual carriageway. By now the detailed plans should be available, well it is well known that "should" butters no parsnips. These plans will not now be available until next Springtime (when birds do sing hey ding a ding, ding). I'm all for measuring twice and cutting once but to keep on putting things back will mean the actual work will neatly coincide with that other Hull problem the 2017 City of Culture. (One of themes I have heard is to be "Roots and Routes" so maybe it's all part of fiendish plan.) Drivers and that includes visitors to the cultural delights will be advised to take alternative routes, that is shorthand for find your own way through the infernal gridlock, matey, you're on your own! You have been warned.

Did Britannia waive the rules?

This building on the corner of Whitefriargate and Land of Green Ginger was built in 1886 to house the Colonial and United States Mortgage Company. The architects were one Mr Clamp and our old friend Alfred Gelder. I know nothing of the Colonial and US Mortgage Company, Google refuses to enlighten me. I can tell you that many years after it was built it housed another mortgage company, the Britannia Building Society, later to become the Britannia Bank. Why isn't it still a branch of Britannia? Well you know it's just the old, old story ....

The Britannia Building Society, was caught up in the dying embers of the 2008 crash. It was  formed in the mid 19th century and was the second largest building society until it merged with the Cooperative Bank in 2009. Now I'm not going to say there was a criminal enterprise involved because no-one has been charged with anything but  the Britannia  had a boat load of bad debts (sub-prime garbage) on its books. The merged concern had to be 'distanced' from the mutual Co-op and in effect bought out. Expect a huge legal brouhaha over all this. Meanwhile if you know anyone who wants a Victorian French renaissance style office and erstwhile bank, here's one going spare.

Here's how it looked when new and yes it was enlarged at a later date. And quite how, despite being a listed building, that ornate frontage was replaced with  plate glass dreck is probably a story too murky for sensitive souls.

McCoys

...and what to do with an old office building? Why not turn it into yet another outlet for that cultural delight that is coffee? Whether or not this is the real M^cCoy I couldn't say. OK that's enough coffee shops for now, I don't even drink the stuff ... give me a nice cup of tea anyday.

Thieving Harry's

What to do with an old fruit and veg merchant's warehouse? Simple, turn it into the "forefront of Hull’s developing coffee scene". Why Thieving Harry's I don't know, it's as good a name as any. And while you or I might just turn on the tap and brew up these guys are taking things just that little bit further, well read their 'coffee' page to see what I mean. Reverse osmosis!? The place seems to be thriving with excellent reviews and there is always the views over the marina to keep you occupied.

Fiat Lux

"Hey", said the guy who was fishing off the Corporation Pier, "they actually work! I thought they were just for show!" I looked a bit non-plussed, what could he mean?. "The fancy lights", he explained, "they work, not just decoration!" And I bet you thought it was just me that was cynical in these parts ...

Aschenbach to the future

A Victorian guide to Britain's railway, Bradshaw's Guide, talks of Hull being like Venice and people taking special trains from the Leeds and so on to view the sights of this spectacular city. Back then the city, or most of it at least, was surrounded on all sides by water, the Humber and a ring of docks. No-one would thnk that now, but when the sun goes down over the Marina and if you squint your eyes maybe that's a canal going off into the distance...

And speaking of Venice, Margot, entering into the city of culture spirit that runs excitedly throughout the town, thought that for 2017 the streets could be turned into canals, to which I added, it could celebrate the ten year anniversary of the 2007 floods ... but think gondolas on Ferensway, oh, oh, oh and a masquerade and some wild licentiousness to a soundtrack of Vivaldiish muzac... No? Oh well.... We could add cholera and phthisic young men as a sideshow if that is your thing. Aw come on  now ...

I was going going to make some comment on the anniversary of the city of culture award but things are becoming too absurd even for me. Let's just say that those supposedly in charge ("They will be our Barnum and Bailey, helping us to deliver some fantastic art and helping draw together everyone who wants to be part of 2017." ) are developing a "beautiful narrative" and leave the rest  your imagination. 

Weekend Reflections are over there.

Fairfax Avenue

Fairfax Avenue is a residential road that runs from a roundabout on Cottingham Road to a junction with Bricknell Avenue. I guess most of it dates from the 1930's when land round here must have been cheap judging by the space given over to the wide grass verges which are protected from parking by regular wooden posts. It is, you might say, a typical surburban street lined with typical semi-detached houses and you might expect it to be a bit uninteresting, bordering on the boring. Well maybe; except in Winter time when the silver birches are as you see or in Spring when the blossom is simply stunning and sometimes in Autumn when the leaves turn and do that colour trick that trees do so well. So that only leaves Summer; now it can be "rather dull, unfunny and suburban" in Summer I will admit. 

The weekend in Black and White is here.

From the canteen window

One of the perks of working in Boot's store on Whitefriargate is that the canteen is the banqueting hall of the old Neptune Hotel with a view past the exotic lingerie store and the bank along Parliament Street. 

This is the ceiling, as you might have guessed. Nice though it is I guess a raise in take home pay would be a better perk. 

This room is open on Open Heritage Days in September which is when I took these photos.

Humber Bore

I'm told that every tidal estuary has a bore, that is when the incoming water overcomes the outflowing water and surges upstream. In the UK the Severn bore is particualrly well known with brave souls surfing along it for miles. The Humber then also has a bore (apart from me) it's just not that noticeable near Hull. This is not to say that the tidal wave isn't rushing at great speed (25mph or so past Hull) and some violence up this narrowing inlet and indeed upstream there is, on the Trent, a bore known as the Aegir or Eagre. All these twice daily flows can and do shift sandbanks around causing shippping channels, at least upstream of Hull, to alter course, sometimes overnight. Which leads us to this little boat, the ABP survey vessel Humber Ranger, busy keeping an eye on things at the bottom of the stream and producing up to date navigation charts every two or three months.  

Red Buoy

Now it depends where you are just what you make of this. American (in the broadest continental sense) mariners will recognize this color as denoting the starboard limit of a channel as you approach from the sea. Excercising the true spirit of utter contrariness, in this country and most of the world excluding America navigators recognise this red coloured buoy as showing the port limit of a channel. Now I'm sure you won't forget this as you sail your expensive yachts up the Humber on your way to the city of culture. If, however, you need to look up port and starboard then perhaps the train is your best bet.

Gross Value

Inglemire Lane, Hull

Some time ago I posted an odd picture of trees in nets and mentioned that this was due to impending development of the site. Here you can see the fruits of all that. It's a school in case you were wondering. No sorry scrub that, this is no mere school, this is a Catholic international sports college, with "world class thinking" and "world class achieving"; so there. Hmm, no matter, the trees are gone along with the fashion of calling a spade a spade.

Window Scene

Smyth's Toyshop, Clough Road

I don't suppose anyone much younger than myself and certainly anyone who did not watch 1960's British TV will ever have heard of Harry Worth. He had a series on the telly, what they call a sit-com, though it was more 'sit' than 'com' as I recall. No, the only reason I have dragged this out of the mire that is my distant past is that in taking this shot I was reminded of the opening of  Harry Worth's program. Well OK just take a peek at the video and you might see what I'm rambling on about.

Weekend reflections are here

The blue bottle

In the increasingly ridiculous local paper today I read that Hull is better than Paris. Et bien, à chacun son goût! But there are similarities for, on our delightful rive droite, close by the tidal barrier there's a space with seating where les philosophes meet to admire the view and drink cheap, synthetic, industrial strength cider from a big blue bottle. Did someone not say delusion is the first of all pleasures?

All the leaves are gone ...

Taken by Margot K Juby

...and the sky is grey.

The Weekend in Black and White should be here.