Acquired on behalf of clients

This is, or rather was, the Newland United Reformed Church on Beverley Road. It had stood empty for as long as I can remember and is now being reformed but in a more disunited way. I don't know what is to become of the site, I'll let it come as a surprise.

Ppick up a penguin

Imagine, if you can, that you're a flightless bird from the Southern hemisphere used to ranging up to 16 miles a day in the ocean for your food and living in groups of dozens  if not hundreds of your fellow birds. OK I know that being a penguin is not everyone's idea of fun but I expect penguins are having a blast. That is until the concerned conservationists get you in their bleeding heart sights. Then they'll whisk you up to be an exhibit in this state of the art animal prison with a new home that "runs over three floors and features a swimming pool, diving pool, beach area, nesting area and the penguins very own outdoor balcony with views overlooking the River Humber". It's been built with your "penguin comforts in mind". Whoop-de-doo!

From March 3 you can, for a not inconsiderable fee, stand and gawp at five unfortunate Gentoo penguins as they 'perform' for your entertainment in a £750,000 exhibit. The place says it's "For Conservation, not profit" well phooey! This is just a vile crowd puller and nothing whatsoever to do with conservation. At a similar venue in Scarborough the penguins are being dosed with anti-depressants probably to stop them drowning themselves ...

Sammy's Point

The bit of land on the east side of the junction of the river Hull and the Humber, where the Deep is now squatting, was once a large ship yard run by one Martin Samuelson. In the 1850's and 60's about one hundred steam vessels were made here by Martin Samuelson and Co before they sold out to another company and moved onto other business. Samuelson's name however became attached to this spit of land and Sammy's Point it remains.

I came across this oil painting of the shipyard, painted from the other side of the river, on the BBC's site where it is wrongly named (nobody's perfect).

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Expensive Toy

You'll no doubt be familiar with Hull new £7 million award winning toy. I know some call it a bridge but basically it's a toy that the Council plays with every Saturday at 11am and 3pm and on Sundays at 12.45pm. Here's a video of them playing (the sound track is somewhat odd). I'm sure that it's a truly unique experience ....

Now the bridge swings to allow shipping to go along the river but the river is silting up and there are at present no plans to dredge it so sooner or later no shipping will go up or down this river; indeed the river itself may choose to go somewhere else (and who would blame it?). There's supposed to be a cafe/shop on the bridge but no-one daft enough has been found to take up the tenancy. The windows give good reflections of Hull's flood barrier.

I'm told it looks pretty at night.

This Weekend's Reflections are here.

Railway Accident

My thanks to the local newspaper (it's not often you're going to hear that from me) for reminding me about these terrible events on this day in 1927. Twelve people were killed when two trains collided just outside Paragon Station. You can read about it here. This little memorial is to be found at the rear of Hull Royal Infirmary. It's not the original one, that one, in the grand tradition of things, was nicked.

White van man got bored ....

...so he added a splash of colour.

Half empty or half full?

It was only in October last year that I posted how plans were being put forward to turn this dry dock into an amphitheatre [ 1 ]. After months of work all the silt that had accumulated in the dock had been washed out and the place looked ready to go. Well, as I may have mentioned, the Humber rose to record heights one night in December and refilled this dock. No problem you might think; just wait for low tide open the dock gates and let the water out. I'm guessing the dock gates don't work too well after the years of neglect so it's a case of slowly pumping out the water. Seeing the place as it is now I hope gives the planners pause for thought and they build a higher wall else their amphitheatre will be a duck pond. 

While I'm here can I point you in the direction of this excellent blog post about Hull: "Hull: City of Culture". It's a fairly comprehensive review of Hull's' architectural delights and horrors and examines some of the causes for the city's woes. As the author says "Hull is a super place, one of the most distinctive and unusual towns in England, whose assets are being absurdly wasted."