5th Avenue, NHE

That's North Hull Estate as opposed to New York City. The estate was built between the wars to house those moving out of the slums of  the inner city. It was a council estate of small but well built houses almost all with a garden of some sort. There was little variety in the housing with long roads of identical buildings, I've read there are only six types of houses on the whole estate. Still if it wasn't exactly heaven it was better than the alternative and these properties were much sought after. Over the years, however,  the estate became run down and had a reputation, probably undeserved, for anti-social behaviour. So a while back the council spent loads of money doing up the whole estate, every house was modernised and new walls with railings went round each property, red tiles replaced grey slates. This work and the efforts of owner-occupiers have made the place look a whole lot better than it did.

One odd feature of the estate is that may of the streets have numbers rather than names maybe the planners just got lazy.

Great giant glitter balls

Maybe it's something they put in the water or the lateness of Spring or whatever but plans have been put forward to construct a massive mirror ball, you know the kind they used to have (and probably still do for all I know) in discos of the 70's around this site on Humber Street. The plans come from a group calling itself the Museum of Club Culture; a spokesperson is reported as saying " “The gently revolving mirrorball will glow in the evenings as it transforms into a giant 360 degree cinema screen. Audio/visual artists’ work will be projected by ten video projectors onto the inside of the sphere and will provide a free open air cinema for the public.”. The price? A cheeky £40 million. I checked the date of the report and it wasn't April 1^st.

Dutch Courage

So here's a colourful sign I found in a snicket off High Street.  This is the consulate of our Dutch friends, well we haven't been at war for several centuries. Intrigued by the motto I find these words were supposedly uttered by William the Silent, Prince of Orange and Nassau, (perhaps that's all he ever said) in the seemingly never ending struggles of Holland to free itself from foreign occupation. I'll pass over the fact that the motto is in French as our royals also have a French motto. The French sensibly got rid of their royals. 

Stands the church clock at ten to three?

The English the English the English are best

I wouldn't give tuppence for all of the rest

Here's the flag of St George, Macedonian slayer of dragons and patron, so it seems, to half the countries of Europe and elsewhere (many Muslims around Bethlehem also celebrate his feast day). I can't admit to feeling any stirrings of patriotic fervour at the sight of this rag so you'll not be surprised that I'm not inspired by suggestions that today, St George's Day, be made an English National Day. There is, of course, no need for such a day celebrating all things English, as it is well known, for the true Englishman (not me, I'm a cad and probably a bounder as well), every day is a celebration of his God given superiority.

It's not that they're wicked or naturally bad

It's just that they're foreign that makes them so mad

The English are all that a nation should be

And the pride of the English are Chipper and me

(Flanders & Swan)

Today is also the birthday and deathday (is there such a word?) of that well known English playwright William Shakespeare whose famous last words were almost certainly not "It's my birthday and I'll die if I want to".

The good folk at City Daily Photo are having a St George's Day theme, perhaps they took it more seriously than me, I do hope not. Any way you can find what others made of this here.

Underneath the arches

Here's the underside of Myton bridge; with its numerous columns it could be some latter day  temple dedicated, no doubt, to Hermes. I like this place but not enough to make it my home. Carefully placed between the heaps of pigeon guano someone has set up a bed.

History of a museum

This imposing building on High Street now houses the Hull and East Riding Museum. It was originally the Customs House then in 1856 it became the Corn Exchange (not to be confused with Ye Olde Corn Exchange) before becoming a Museum of Commerce and Transport in 1923. Following WW2 when it was damaged by bombing it reopened as a Museum of Transport and Archaeology in 1957. It was renamed the Hull and East Riding Museum in 1983. 

Due to the narrowness of the street I couldn't get a full shot of the facade but if you click here you'll get an early drawing of the building.

The doorway still has the signs of the corn merchants and traders who worked from this building.

Old and newish and still to come

Here's another view from the site of the proposed 18 storey hotel (see yesterday) featuring Holy Trinity's tower and a 60/70s multi-storey car park It's not much of a view to boast about I agree but I think it's better than an oversized "fag packet" .

You can find more monochrome fun at the Weekend in Black and White here.