Courts of Law

If you get caught doing something you shouldn't then you might end up having to appear in this building to account for your actions. This is the Combined Court building on Lowgate housing the County and Crown courts. I wonder if there is a special court for designers of ugly modern buildings?

For Sale

Ok, not this tree exactly, but if the vindictive idealogues who have taken over the governance of the state have their way, then publicly owned forests and woodlands would be sold off  to the highest bidder. No other civilised country in the world acts in this spiteful way. Needless to say this policy is as popular as clap in a whorehouse, but will they listen to the howls of protest or do they have beans in their ears?

Grandstand View

At the northern edge of Beverley Westwood is the racecourse. It's a mile and three furlong course for flat races. As the Westwood is common land you can wander across the racecourse as you wish; just watch out for galloping nags. You do have to pay to get into the stands.The first races this year are in April. There's a website here.

"Half-formed theatre company seeks other half"

Next door to the blue cone music centre that I showed you yesterday is the new Hull Truck theatre. It replaces the old tin shed on Spring Street, shown below. This new place cost £15 million (the old one £2.50!) and has all the trimmings that you would expect for such expenditure.
Hull Truck started in 1971 following an ad (see title) in Time Out magazine placed by an out of work actor called actor Mike Bradwell. The company's success rested on producing plays relevant to the audiences of Hull. Pandering to the lowest common denominator is not necessarily a good thing; you can have too many gritty realistic plays (one would be too many, in my view).
 The move to the new premises was followed by the recession which has not helped finances and the theatre will struggle, make that is struggling. No doubt there will be appeals for more public money to be spent on this place and no doubt more will be spent. Hmmm.

As always there's a website, it's here.

(Photo taken by  Keith D. )

Conic Section

Yesterday's staircase pops out of the top of this sliced blue cone. This is the Albemarle Music Centre  constructed to replace a plain brick building of such little note that hardly anyone can remember what it looked like. It's all part of the general development of Ferensway that includes the St Stephens shopping centre, a hotel and a theatre which I'll show tomorrow.
This is where the talented youths of the East Riding go to practice and play their instruments. The centre has two large rehearsal spaces and teaching rooms for the 16 Hull music ensembles as well as rehearsal space for the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra and the Yorkshire Young Musicians. It cost £3 million and opened in 2007.
Chris Hall of Holder Mathias Architects said: “The Albemarle Music Centre is a jewel in the St Stephen’s scheme. We have worked alongside the City of Hull and our client, ING Real Estate Development to create a building that will serve schools in the area well, and be something of which the people of Hull will be proud.” But then I guess he would say something along those lines. 

Spiral Staircase

After a few old and derelict buildings here's a new building, well at least the fire escape from a new building. I'll show you the building itself tomorrow.

Big apple

Around the corner from the Albert Hall stands yet another piece of dereliction and decay. I show you all the best bits of Hull. This is the New York. It was a thriving dive of a place until, as I recall, the early 1990s. It is now as you see it broken and unloved.
I mentioned when I posted about the Albert Hall that there were rumours of redevelopment. My researches have found that, indeed, planning permission for a brand new hotel to be called the Park was granted in 2008.  This would involve demolishing this whole block; I can't honestly say that I'll miss this particular building.

Picture Houses

This view has two of Hull's old cinemas. The Tower which I showed you a few days ago and the Regent which was built in 1910 and was open until 1978. The Regent is now a pub called Horners.
The archway is a side entrance to Paragon station. After taking this picture I noticed lots of signs threatening prosecution for trespassing on railway property so I left. 

Princes Quay Fountain

I had totally forgotten the date so when I discovered it was a new month I had to hunt down a fountain picture for today's theme picture. I took this in May last year; it has a nice rainbow in it.


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Albert Hall, Midland Street, Hull

In a seedy little street behind Hull's Paragon station stands this ruin of a building. Hull's very own Albert Hall once entertained up to 800 patrons with music hall variety acts. The days of music hall passed and the place became a straightforward public house and later a bingo hall called the Fair and Square Club. It's been closed for nearly forty years and is heavily vandalised. There were rumours of demolition and redevelopment but as I've said before these rumours amount to very little. If something isn't done about it soon I guess gravity, the weather and the thriving buddleias will have the final say.

There's an excellent web page on this building's history here.

It's all done by mirrors

This is Europa House on Ferensway and Anlaby Road. It's clearly been built with photographers in mind.

I posted some reflections from this building before here.

Hull First

Railway enthusiasts (aka train spotters) will no doubt be able to tell that this is a Class 180 Adelante unit, used by First Hull Trains to run its direct Hull to London service. Here it stands at Paragon station waiting its passengers who have grown weary of the delights of this fair city.

The wrong side of the tracks

Anlaby Road tower blocks seem to march off into the distance. 

These rail platforms are no longer used. They were specially built to take European emigrants from Hull to Liverpool whist separating them from the native population; they were kept out of sight. Many thousands passed through here in the search for a better life. I guess that, as they didn't stay in Hull, the chances are they found one. If they'd stayed their descendants might be living in these lovely "homes".

For Sale May Rent

This is the Tower on Anlaby Road. It opened in 1914 as a cinema. In 1978 it closed and since then it has been a boxing venue, a roller disco and eventually as a night club and fun pub. It is currently for sale.
The Cinema Theatre Association wants someone to buy the place with a view to returning it to a cinema. All the original plaster work is still there. So with a bit of luck Hull might get another cinema.
You can read here about local memories of the place through the years.

Saving the planet ...

or just saving money?
Commuters park up their bikes at Beverley station before taking the train to Hull or better places.

Beverley Arms Hotel

The Beverley Arms Hotel opened in 1794 as a coaching inn. The advertisements on the web for this hotel state that the hotel had a connection with the highwayman Dick Turpin which is odd since he was executed in 1739.

The hotel has a website here.

Driffield Navigation in January

I posted a shot from this spot in June when all was green and leafy. It was so gloomy when I visited the other day that I thought why not a monchrome shot.

A bend in the river

 The weather is stuck at the moment under a high pressure which means for the east of the UK we get good old anticyclonic gloom, day after day of cloudy skies drifting in off the North Sea. At least it stays dry so I can get out and about. Here's the River Hull taking one of its many twists and turns near the source at Driffield. The area around here is a protected site of scientific interest with many special plants and animals.

Sarcophagus

The General Cemetery on Spring Bank was started in the 1840s and was a well laid and ordered place with well kept paths and cleared spaces. Now its filled with matured trees and it's just a place to walk the dog and for other less salubrious activities. You can still come across stunning examples of the Victorian near obsession with mourning and funerary monuments. It is difficult now to see quite what the purpose of this massive marble sarcophagus might be. Here it stands slowly eroding and being swallowed up by ivy.

Fourny père et fils

Here's another piece of classic Victorian cemetery furnishing, the broken column. In this grave lie Jules and Hector Fourny, ship surveyors in Hull during the early nineteenth century. Jules Fourny came to Hull from Boulogne to make his fortune. They must have been successful as graves like this don't come cheap.

Vicar Lane

Did the vicar actually live down Vicar Lane? I don't suppose I'll ever know. This narrow lane runs from Holy Trinity Church to Castle Street near to Burnett House which I showed you two or three days ago.

Church Lane Staithe

A staithe is an old english word for a landing place or wharf. This lane led at one time to the church and still would if they hadn't put a carpark and some shops in the way.

Trinity Market

Trinity Market, better known as the Indoor Market, was built at the beginning of the last century and has about 50 stalls when times are good. This is the view from Market Place, round the corner there's a tower structure which I showed before.
Nearly all old markets that I am aware of have attendant public houses and this is no exception. The Blue Bell is practically part of the market and the Old Corn Exchange is the white building on the left.

Burnett House, Castle Street

Here's a fine example of how to waste money. The building above had stood empty for years and was derelict as you can see below. Clearly nobody had any need for the building. So pull it and down and build something that might be useful? No, you can't do that; you've got to keep our glorious heritage. You must spend thousands repairing the years of neglect, bring it back to how it was when it was built. So, money spent and building repaired you find tenants to use the building? No, it stands empty, just like before, for over four years. When it was derelict it at least served as home for pigeons, now it's just an empty useless building that nobody wants.

Premier

This is the first building of the redevelopment of Hull's riverside, the so-called Boom development. It's a hotel standing all by itself in a wasteland. I took this picture in October last year and have only just noticed that it's actually multi-story carpark with a hotel stuck on top. I think it's a fairly ugly thing, big and blue; and quite what those poles sticking out of the side are for I cannot even begin to guess.

The Royal Hotel

Sometimes called the Station Hotel, the Royal sits in front of Paragon Station on Ferensway. It was built in 1851. In 1990 I watched as one of the biggest fires in Hull destroyed the inside of the building. No-one was killed or seriously injured and within two years the place had been rebuilt.

If you're interested there's a website here 

Docked

Here the Albert Dock stretches away towards the Humber Bridge.

Commercial Break

They really couldn't put a retail park anywhere else than on Commercial Road.

Unlucky for some

Warehouse No. 13 was built in 1857 for the Hull Dock Company and converted into luxury flats to coincide with the opening of the Hull Marina. 

Red and white

Memento mori

The Victorians seemed to have far grander funereal monuments than is the style these days. This fine angel stands in Spring Bank cemetery and is one of only a few to have survived the ravages of vandals and the Council's strange desire to flatten grave stones on grounds of "health and safety".

Geese in flight

They say a poor workman blames his tools so I'm blaming my camera's delay for the slight blur not to say lack of focus on these shots.  

Parky

The cold of last year seems to have gone for now leaving a frozen park lake and lots of juicy reflections.

But is it art?

No, not some modernist sculpture on display in Hull's East Park, this is an outdoor gym. At a cost of £40,000 the NHS has provided those who wish to make fools of themselves in public a generous gift.  There are many obese people in Hull and this was intended to provide them with free facilities for exercise. Maybe they are shy as I have yet to see anybody actually use it.
Amazingly the equipment is still unvandalised after 6 months.

Shopping Centre

Something to look at ...

...while you're sitting on that seat I showed yesterday. 

A place to sit

This wavy seat is at Hull University.

Maritime Museum

Another shot of this museum; this time I've passed it through the adaptive contrast filter on Gimp. Seems to bring out the stonework nicely.

Tempus Fugit

There's only 357 shopping days till Christmas ....

May Blossom on Beverley Westwood

With the start of a new year here's what I think of as the best of last year's photos.
Happy New Year!

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