Vacant

Across the street from yesterday's building, which you can see reflected in the window, sits the old Radio Humberside offices and studios. They were situated above the now closed Post Office. If I was to say the building was empty and 'to let' you would not be at all surprised. Radio Humberside now broadcasts from the BBC buildings near Queens Gardens. 

I just realised that I've posted another shot from Chapel Street in March last year and that, too, was of an empty building, a bank. It's still empty.

Chapel Street

There is no sign of the 1,500 seat Provident Chapel that gave this street its name. No sign either of the brewery that stood at the end of it. Little Queen Street no longer curves round and joins it half way down. The chapel was built in 1797. One description has it as being "almost hidden from view at the end of Hope Street". The last service was held in 1903, it later became a warehouse destroyed, as was much of this area, in the blitz.  History has not been kind to Chapel Street which is now just a short almost stubby little street connecting Paragon Street and Jameson Street, building the latter took away the northern end and most of Little Queen Street. Nowadays it seems to be almost entirely shut and available for let. This arch is part of Queen's House built out of the post war rubble and stands just about on the site of the old chapel.

Water trough

This old water trough stands in a hollow created by hundreds of hooves over the years as the commoners' cattle seek to slake their thirst in the heat of Summer. It's next to the old black mill that I showed last week when the heat of Summer was the last thing I was thinking about; avoiding hypothermia was my main concern.The cattle aren't allowed on the common until May; hopefully it will be a bit warmer by then.

More monochrome stuff at the Weekend in Black & White here.

Going downhill on Ferensway

In what used to be the C&A store that closed because the parent company withdrew from the UK and later became TJ Hughes' store that went bust in the 'great recession' here's Poundland. A shop where every item costs £1. Do you see any progress here? A mid-range clothing firm becomes a down market retailer becomes the bottom feeder of price-point retailing. Poundland is successful with nearly 3 million customers a week and stores across the UK but then if you get some of your staff free from the Government under the workfare scheme that is bound to help with the bottom line [ 1 ]. 

To Let on Paragon Street

I read a few weeks ago that there were supposed to be fewer vacant shops in Hull; well not as far as I can tell. More if anything. These are all in the space of less than fifty yards.

I had to smile when I saw the above was empty and to let. It's the old Jobcentre where Hull's unemployed had to sign on for their excessive benefits that ruined the country's economy if we are to believe the Chancellor of the Exchequer and why shouldn't we? (The Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, was recently rash enough to claim that he could live on £53 a week. Over 400,000 signed an online petition in two days demanding that he do just that. IDS then claimed that was a "stunt"; you can imagine how that went down in Twitzerland and other places.)

And here's fourth for good measure. Clearly there is great potential in Hull with lots of opportunities for small businesses to acquire premises. 

I'm having a monochrome moment if you want colour go watch TV.

In the red

Ah well, I guess it couldn't last. Here's the pub formerly known as the Fishbowl, Hockney's and also Aussie Beach all boarded up and for sale once again. Seems it failed to attract the students despite having staff dress up as goldfish during the first few days of term last year. Can't imagine why a gimmick like that didn't work. Are students becoming more discerning?

Anyway if you've got a quarter of a million sterling going spare and you fancy trying your hand in the licensed trade well  you can see who to contact in this photo. Be warned history has a nasty habit of repeating itself usually as farce.

So that's who it is ... the Goddess of Beauty

A couple of years ago I took this shot of an odd-shaped woman holding an apple and dropping what I took to be a tennis racket or perhaps a frying pan. It's part of a series of figures topping a wall by the riverside (I showed one earlier here). What could it be I wondered? The other figures seemed to represent trades and professions of Hull. Quite what this lady's profession might be I had not a clue (I lead a sheltered life) and various lewd suggestions from web-friends were hardly helpful. And there things would have remained had I not spent an afternoon going through recent photos. I found myself looking at exactly the same figure in a mosaic from the 3^rd century AD! Unclad lady, an apple and what turns out to be a mirror who else could it be but Venus the Goddess of Beauty. OK beauty comes in all shapes and sizes ...

The mosaic is the Rudston Venus mosaic which came from a large Roman villa in the village of Rudston just west of Bridlington. It is now safely ensconced in the Hull & East Riding Museum.