H & H 500 not out ...

Well if you were landing in Hull five hundred or more years ago here is where you would come ashore; Rotenhering Staith. The name is thought to derive, not from old fish as you might have thought, but from a family who went by this unfortunate name and lived nearby and quite possibly owned the staith as well. The sign is at a jaunty angle, typical of the style of so many signs in this town.

Blogger tells me this is the 500th post, when I started I didn't think there could possibly be five hundred things to say about the place. Ah well, 'til tomorrow then ....

Under the bridge

This is where the A63 gets lifted up and over High Street and the river Hull. The sloping ground is ideal for skateboarding and other nefarious activities. It also abounds in bollards.

Fetish

I think whoever designs the roads and pavements of this town has a unquestioning reverence bordering on an unhealthy fetish for bollards. They seem to crop up in the most unlikely places and appear to serve no purpose; and because one bollard by itself would look a wee bit dumb we get whole lines of them. Maybe they come down at night and play leapfrog.

17

... the number of bollards placed in a neat row by the foreshore for no particular reason that I can discern.

North Church Side

In 1860 one T J Smith started refining and bottling cod liver oil at 10 North Church Side, later he was joined by his nephew and the business growed like topsy. The company, Smith & Nephew, is now the fifth-largest health care products supplier in a worldwide market worth £5 billion. A Hull success story; there had to be one somewhere.

Not waving but drowning

Around the 'water play area' I showed sometime back there are these wavy seats where parents can oversee their 'delightful offspring' having watery fun.

It was all yellow

In another lifetime I posted how work had started on building a new bridge across the Hull (here and here). Since then there's been a change of government and as I've mentioned before all things grind to a halt, change their names and then start again under the 'new' management. So it was a pleasant surprise to see that some progress has been made. The bridge when completed (later this year we are 'promised') will allow pedestrians to remain on it whilst it opens for boats to pass under. Below is the 'arm' that will swing and, although it's under wraps now, I can tell you it's all yellow.