Trident

If you're familiar with Hull you'll know where this is. If not it doesn't really matter. It's just a piece of Edwardian claptrap celebrating Empire and Majesty and all the crud that goes with it. Fitting then that it sits on top of the public convenience.

Punch Hotel

The Punch was originally built in the 1840's ( see old photo here ) but was demolished and rebuilt in grand style in 1896. The exterior is covered in ceramic tiling to give a highly decorative effect. It sits on the corner of Queen Victoria Square between the Ferens art gallery and Carr Lane's 20th century excrescences. 

Traffic Lights

OK what can I possibly say about this? In December 1868 the world's first traffic lights came into operation near Westminster Bridge in London. They were gas lit and unfortunately within a month had sprung a leak and blown up resulting in the policeman who was operating them suffering severe burns and, according to some sources, dying from his injuries. Things have moved on a bit and now there must be millions of these devices at junctions all across the world. There's a fair few here at the junction of Holderness Road and Mount Pleasant. There's precious little to say about this junction except that it's oft times busy and the sooner you can get away from it the better. I'm sorry I can't imagine what I was thinking taking such a dull picture and inflicting it on the world. 

If celebrating Australia Day (or Invasion Day if you wish) tickles your fancy then some City Daily Photo bloggers are posting about this here.

Clearance

Six months ago I posted that this block was due for demolition and it seems that half the job has been done. The remaining buildings are still trading with a pawnbrokers and a kebab shop carrying on as if nothing has happened.When they say they've levelled the site they mean it!

Cornmi ...

For reasons that need not detain you I ended up walking around the wilds of East Hull the other day. It seemed the place was either in the business of closing down or had already achieved that state of economic death. One particular cadaver stood out. At the junction of Mount (un)Pleasant and Holderness Road squats the rotting remains of the Cornmill Hotel. It's neatly embalmed and ready for sale, well good luck with that. 

The past is a foreign country

The junction of Spring Bank and Princes Avenue is a fairly busy place at the best of time.The traffic flow is now improved by a new lights but even so tailbacks are a regular feature. Imagine how much worse they would be if the railway that used to run across this junction was still operating and all traffic had to stop to let a train go by. Well that's how it was until 1964 when the trains to Hornsea and Withernsea used to trundle through here stopping at the Botanic Station which was close to the pub on the left. Below an old photo of how it used to be taken from more or less the same place; note the solitary policeman to control affairs. 

There's more information on the old station here which is also the site I borrowed the above picture from.

Stand out from the rest

Hull's expansion at the end of the 19^th century led to the development of Spring Bank West. It was formerly known as Derringham Bank and already had the General & Western cemeteries along its northern side. SBW eventually spread out to the far western edges of the city and is now a major commuting route with thousands of vehicles passing along it every day. The houses at the Eastern end are basically  long terraces of late Victorian/Edwardian houses all pretty much the same. About half way down this section of the road this little end terrace house stands out from the crowd with its circular turret surmounted by a fine weather vane. No matter how fine the windows, however, the view from them is the same, the cemetery .... and traffic.