Tide Turning

Close by the Minerva pub near Victoria Pier sits this cute little slate sculpture entitled 'Tide turning'. I must have passed it dozens of times and not really noticed it, so I guess you can call it unobtrusive. No doubt someone, some where knows who made it but I haven't been able to find out.  

Toupée or not toupée ...

Should I be tempted to cover my balding pate do you think I should take to wearing a fluorescent toupée? It might brighten up my life, make me stand out out in a crowd ... I muse on this because not one but two shops selling gaudy wigs have sprung up in town. This, on Paragon Street,  had the larger and more colourful selection. Now the green or the pink? Choices, choices ...

Land Train

As mentioned back in February Hull has a land train now up and running. For £4 (I'm assuming we're all adults here) you can ride the beast from Queen Victoria square through the old town all the way across the wide and beautiful river to the Deep and back again in a little over an hour. Or you could just walk it for nowt, as we say in these parts .... when I took this picture there did seem to be more staff than passengers but maybe trade will pick up.

I suppose I should tell you that this thing has a website, here, last time I looked though it was"under construction". Unless it actually runs me over or falls into the river I shan't be mentioning this again.

Round Square

Long, long ago Margot's parents came to Hull for her graduation ceremony in the City Hall. They stopped off for a meal in a Chinese restaurant, after their meal they asked the way to the City Hall and were told to go along the road until they came to the "round square". From that day forth Queen Victoria square has been known in these circles as the round square. Back then it had traffic circulating the regal urinals and did not look like a paved desert. We are told this space will feature prominently in the 2017 C of C thing; well that'll be fun then won't it....


CDP's Square theme is here.

The Beauty of Curves

Bowlalley Lane

May day is traditionally a day of protest by workers against whatever it is workers don't like, usually low wages, the system, the bosses and the bourgeoisie and so on. Today's City Daily Photo first-day-of-the-month theme dictated to us without democratic choice is 'squares'. So in the spirit of the day and not to be cowed by the growing tyranny of theme days I give you this ornate entrance on Bowlalley Lane which is marred only by those two quite unnecessary quadrilaterals.

If you must seek squares you should look elsewhere.

Brunswick Arcade

Across the road from yesterday's empty church stands Brunswick Arcade. Built as the sign says in 1890 and like the curate's egg it's good in parts. The northern end is in pretty good nick with a newsagent (Pickwick Papers, where I used to get my papers from many years ago) and a couple of restaurants though one of them is undergoing renovation. No, the trouble lies, as you can see below, at this near end which is or was nearly collapsing from neglect and decay. Now this is a conservation area and no doubt these buildings are listed ( I haven't checked) and as members of the public tend to resent buildings falling on their heads the Council has been put in the position of having to pay for scaffolding to prop up a building it does not own. Price, according to local press, a mere £200,000. Fine you might say, an emergency required emergency action except the emergency was back in 2011! Every week costs the Council £150 just for inspections required by law. No sight or sound of the people this wreck belongs to. The Council are quoted in the paper as saying "Any costs will be recovered from the owners", it's good to live in hope, don't you think?

Trafalgar Street Church

Oh those Victorians! How they did like their churches, scattering them around the town with nary a thought to what the future would bring, like the market in Christianity collapsing post 1914-18. So now we have to deal with what might called post-Christian blight. This situation is made worse by a sentimental attachment to all things 'old' even if 'old' is only a hundred years and also conservation laws that defy stylistic and economic reason. Here's Trafalgar Street church on Beverley Road, built by the Baptists in 1906 in a mock Gothic brick flint-clad style (no doubt the builders' enthusiasm or funds did not run to paying out for stone) that you either love or detest (personally, it's as ugly a prayer factory as I've seen for quite some time). It was abandoned by them in 2002 then used by an even smaller sect for a while; it has been standing empty for nearly a decade. The rear church hall is now apartments, so far so good; but what on earth to you do with an empty church? Well they tried selling it for £160,000 but had to settle for a mere £80,000. That was over a year ago and still it sits there behind security fencing. I'm told it has been weatherproofed.  

Well now it seems to be a law that where ever there's an 'old' building falling into disrepair because there is no use for it there springs up a 'support' group to 'save' it and this is no exception. They want National Lottery money as well as donations for their rescue scheme. And their plan for this former house of God? A community gym! Because you must treat your body as a temple I suppose.

Did I mention it's a Grade 2 listed building in a conservation area? No? But then you'd probably guessed that's why it hasn't been knocked down a long time ago. More on this conservation nonsense tomorrow.