Monday 24 May 2010

Our great deliverer ....

This ridiculous piece of Whig triumphalism stands in Market Place, Lowgate, Hull. Strangely, like the Victoria monument, this too overlooks a public convenience. Is this a Hull thing? Do other cities pee under their royals?

The inscription on the plinth reads "This statue was erected in the year MDCCXXXIV, to the memory of King William, our great deliverer". It doesn't say what he delivered ....

Saturday 22 May 2010

Tiger tiger burning bright ....

A couple of years ago the local football club was promoted to the Premier League. Gosh what fun and games! It was the dawn of a new age. Hull was to be a "Top 10 City". Well, the reality was just a tad less exciting and now the club are no longer a Premier Club and Hull is , well, still Hull.

In the euphoria of the promotion the local bus company painted one of  its buses as you can see. The Tigers  reference is the clubs nickname, on account of the colour of their strips, not, unfortunately, the quality of their playing.

Thursday 20 May 2010

North Bar Without and Within, Beverley


Beverley is an old, old town, much older than Hull. A monastery was founded here in the early 700s AD. It used to have four bars or gates as we would now call them (in those days a gate was a street, still is is some street names, compare with  gata, gade of Swedish and Danish ) protecting it. There is only one bar left, the North Bar. A plaque informs the visitor that the Bar was built in 1409 and cost £96/11d. As it's still there 600 years later I suppose that was a good price.
The top picture shows North Bar Without, on account it's outside the walls of Beverley, the one below shows North Bar Within. I'm sorry to say the Tudor looking half-timbered affair above is a much more modern building than it looks.


Tuesday 18 May 2010

Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear ....


Und der Haifisch, der hat Zähne,
Und die trägt er im Gesicht.
Und Macheath, der hat ein Messer,
Doch das Messer sieht man nicht
This little beauty stands outside the entrance to the Deep.