Victoria Dock Village

Victoria dock was to the east of the river Hull and opened in 1850 closing in 1970. The dock itself was filled in and the land was sold for development and work started in 1987 to build the Victoria Dock Village. I haven't been round these parts for over twenty years (it's a bit out of the way!) when it was still being built and it was, frankly, a bit of a mess. Now it's done and beginning to mature though I wouldn't like to live there; it was eerily deserted when I was there.
This is part of the Half-Tide Basin which was added to the dock to allows ships to enter the dock on the half-tide thus extending the time the dock was open for business. In 1989 when the redevelopment took place this had to be dredged as it had silted up to the level of the dock walls!

Where there's brass there's muck ...

...or so it seems. I doubt any amount of elbow grease will polish up the image of this place.

The White Hart

This is not to be confused with Ye Olde White Harte, I suppose by rights it should be called the Not So Old White Hart. It's on Alfred Gelder Street and not too far from the ancient pub. Give it full marks for trying to at least look old.

Since we're on this street I suppose I should mention Alfred Gelder, an architect who seems to have designed most of Hull, from Queens Gardens to numerous methodist chapels even a local chain of shops and several pubs. On just about every main road you'll find something this guy has had a hand in. I don't think he built this one though.

Playing with boats

HMS Explorer, often to be found moored in the marina, is a patrol and training vessel of the British Royal Navy at least that's what Wikipedia tells me. It's really a fancy recruiting toy to get university students interested in taking the Queen's shilling or whatever the going rate is these days. Used to be they pressed ganged 'em now its flash motorboats...

Protecting the East

 

 So to east Hull and a remnant of 16th & 17th century defense spending. This is nearly all that remains of a massive citadel that protected the approaches to Hull from attack by whoever the English government had annoyed at the time (probably most of Europe). There is a blue plaque to tell the passing stranger all about it; unfortunately it's so high up that it's almost unreadable. I had to take a photo just to find out what it said. This stump sits in the middle of a large modern housing estate.

Some of the citadel's demolition material was used to create the charmingly named Khyber Pass feature ( from a futile intrusion by Victorian Britain into Afghanistan, all part of the never ending great game )  in East Park. It's just a glorified rockery really. Sic transit, as they often say in these parts.

Hull Art

It was in June 2010 that I posted about this work by Jimmy Boyle called Mankind Under Threat. At the time I ranted a bit about how the bars had been removed presumably by Hull City Council. I emailed the Council and complained but that did no good; so I emailed the company that sponsored the project but I got no reply. Well I don't know if was my moaning that did the trick but the bars are back. Let's hope the metal thieves don't find out about them.

I'd like to thank a local group called Hull Art, in particular Tim Everett, for alerting me to this pleasant turn of events.

A sad tale

For the past 6 weeks or so a young man has been missing. He was last seen on this bridge and despite massive searches and a huge number of posters he was not found. On Saturday a body was found in the Humber about 8 miles upstream, the searching is over. These balloons and flowers are just a portion, the whole bridge is covered in these tributes.

Taken by Margot K Juby

In a posting last year I mentioned that this was an area noted for people falling into the river and that fencing had been suggested. In the manner of closing the stable door after the horse is running down the street guess what? Yup, a fence is being put up.