Exchange Court

Running off  Lowgate, behind the old court house, Exchange Court is evidence that the court house (now pub/club) was once a public exchange when it was built in 1866. This little alley is home to spiders and red motorbikes. The only business I could find down here was a wealth management company. Wealth? Now what would that be? Vaguely remember the word, but no, sorry, it's gone....do remind me.

It is sweet and right to drive for your country

When I moved to Cottingham about ten years ago one the things that struck me was that there were an awful lot of trucks, just like this one, going back and forth. They weren't all orange but they all seemed empty. What was going on? Well what was going on was that I had moved into the training area of the Defence School of Transport based at Normandy Barracks, Leconfield. This just happens to be "probably the largest residential driver training school in the world"! They take their young wannabe HGV drivers out on the local roads not to universal approbation it has to be said. Over the years you tend not to notice them as they pass by nor when they're parked up down the road for the obligatory cigarette break.Can't be sure on this but I'm guessing tobacco has killed more soldiers than enemy action.

A house on Park Lane

That's Park Lane, Cottingham and really there's no problems with the neighbours since there aren't any save for the pylons and power cables converging on Creyke Beck substation. The noisy skylarks might drive you to distraction though.

The Fagle has landed

Through the agency of time or, more likely thieving little hands, the Eagle on Anlaby Road has been transformed into the Fagle which, as I'm sure you all know, is a French word concerning an order of hardwood trees including oak and beech. No I didn't know that either I had imagined it to mean something entirely, erm how shall I put this, different (*innocent face*). But no matter the pub is still empty.

Meet the new shop ...

In the blink of an eye this shop changed from being Discount UK to Bargain Buys, same staff, same stock, same prices. That's not really surprising since both brands are owned by Poundland. Try as I might I cannot summon up the enthusiasm displayed by a 'business leader' in the local rag who describes this change of name as a sign of "recognising Hull is a great place to do business" or as the same perp said "Hull is bucking the trend in terms of retail". (I have this idea that a vitual 'business leader' spouts out the same messages just changing the town  or city whenever a button is pressed on a rent-a-quote machine) In fact these bargain basement discount stores are ubiquitous in the UK and not a sign of a strengthening retail market; quite the opposite.

And this is just for, well, why not?

Plan B? There's not even a Plan A!

Fish Street from Sewer Lane via Castle Street

*Sigh* With the inevitability of night following day the scheme to upgrade, improve or whatever you want to call it, the festering sore that is Castle Street has run into the docile buffers of bureaucratic inertia. Back in 2013 I posted that money was being made ready for this work and the earliest it could start was 2015 and as is my way I cautioned there might be delays. I hate to say I told you so but ... here we are two years later and those who should have submitted plans, the Government's Highways Agency, have yet to do so and don't look likely to act any time soon. (Surely the rumour that they cannot make a decision during the election run-up is a vile canard, perhaps not) So start dates are being pushed further back, 2018? 2020? Who knows when? Meanwhile the Council, for once not guilty of any misdemeanour and desperate to put some kind of bridge (iconic or otherwise) across the never ending stream of motorised madness in time for the City of Culture in 2017, is going quietly bonkers and talking about coming up with a plan B .... 

Road Works

For the past few months the orange bollards and safety fencing have been up at one of the busiest junctions in town where Beverley Road and Spring Bank meet Ferensway and Freetown Way. The plan is to widen the junction, renew the traffic lights and make bigger islands for pedestrians to cross over. They'll also throw in some so-called pedestrians light controlled push buttons but as these won't actually do anything until the traffic has been stopped by the traffic lights they are really just for show. As with all road works in this town delays are inevitable; last Thursday, for example, I was on the bus into town and got caught in a jam so slow that we made 50 whole yards in ten minutes. In the end I got off and walked. (If you zoom in real close to the centre of the picture my bus is the red and cream one still stuck on Beverley Road ten minutes after I got off it!) The rumour is that this work will be completed ahead of schedule, that'll be a relief and we'll be back to the natural background rate of delays. I expect, though, that the junction will look pretty much the same as it did before which is to say not very pretty at all..