Thursday, 3 July 2014

Percy Cottages


What we have here is the housing equivalent of putting a quart into a pint pot. Instead of just building a straight row of terraced houses our greedy little Victorian builder has missed out every third house and squeezed in another terrace between the rows. So now there are eight houses where one would have been. This was fairly common practice in Hull and elsewhere I guess. These little off shoots were often given  names like Percy Cottages in this case, there's a Minnie's Grove further along and I've seen an Annie's Grove as well, often however they're given somewhat ridiculous names such as Victoria Avenue which is next to old Percy here on Mayfield Street. I once lived in a similar place to this (Willow Grove off Alexandra Road, long ago demolished) and these houses are teeny, damp and squalid, how a family with children was expected to thrive in them I cannot imagine but many generations have and continue so to do. In fairness Mayfield Street is exceptional in that there has been no redevelopment, the neighbouring Middleton Street which was very similar to this has been modernised and these hutches demolished.


Wednesday, 2 July 2014

And tell me what street compares with Hutt Street in July?


Running off Spring Bank, Hutt Street is one of those mid 19th century rows of terraced houses built to accommodate the booming population of Hull. The street is named after Sir William Hutt  MP for the city. Looking into Mr Hutt online I find that, yes, it is agreed he was MP from 1832 to 1837 when according to the internet he was defeated by William Wilberforce. Now you've all heard of William Wilberforce haven't you? Abolished slave trade and all that, died in 1833, whoops hold on a minute, died in 1833? How did the dead William defeat the very much alive William four years after dying? I don't know but the said Wilberforce was unseated by petition (not exorcism?) in 1838, maybe they couldn't stand the smell. Surviving this encounter with the spectral Wilberforce Mr Hutt went on to become MP for Gateshead and served under both Palmerston and Russell. Hull has Hutt Street but New Zealand has Hutt City (upper and lower) along with the Hutt river,  not to be outdone South Australia has a Hutt river as well.

At this point I'd like to thank Wikipedia and those who clearly cut and paste from this excellent source for inspiring such trust in the collective effort to make history more interesting.

Tuesday, 1 July 2014

Callooh! Callay! It's Cottingham Day!


A part of me thinks they hold this in July just celebrate the students having gone home for the Summer but I must banish such thoughts. This isn't just some local day for local people. Everyone's welcome except maybe the riff-raff from Orchard Park. So make a note in your hectic social diary ...

Over at City Daily Photo they are 'Celebrating Summer' for some reason and not without cries of foul from those south of the Equator who are relishing their Winter, lucky them. You can see what 'Celebrating Summer' looks like here.




Monday, 30 June 2014

Thin red line


A few years back, when they were digging the Hull hole and generally tidying up the area around Princes Dock someone had the bright idea of outlining the old city walls (see the blog's title picture for an idea of what these looked like) in red bricks which explains these lines, squares and circular markings by the dockside.

Posterngate

Sunday, 29 June 2014

That big old "Thank You, Hull" party


They seemed to be packing a whole year's worth of 'culture' into one afternoon in Hull yesterday. The day started with the Lord mayor's parade complete with a fly past of some WW2 planes which I saw from two miles away while getting my newspapers, those three planes made one hell of a racket, no stealth bombers back then.


I wouldn't normally attend things like this but I had to go into town for stuff anyway so I had a little look-see. I only stayed for an hour and missed most of the goodies on offer including a "Larkin Toads performance" (I bet that was fun). Here in no particular order are some of the goings-on that I witnessed. 

Synchronised Lindy Hopping!

Where's the next act gone?



A robot that prints on the pavement






If you're wondering what the "thank you" is for it's a  City of Culture thing and if you're still wondering what a City of Culture thing is I suggest lying down in a cool dark room with soothing music. If these images aren't sufficient the local rag has more pictures here.

Saturday, 28 June 2014

Old Tracks


There are still bits of the old narrow gauge rail that used to run around the old Humber dock that is now the Marina. (I've been told it's standard gauge, clearly I know nothing of rail tracks)


The weekend in black and white is here.

Friday, 27 June 2014

10:10 pm


You all know that old saying "red sky at night, shepherd's delight ..." bunkum! It's pouring down ...