All this and so much more ...

Here listed are some of the delights of St Stephens, "Hull's most stylish shopping destination". Here you can fill up on all sorts of franchised fodder before taking in a movie or maybe working off your calories in the gym. Oh and there shops as well selling, you know, stuff.

The wheels on the bus go round and round ...

I wouldn't want you to think I was one of those souls who take pictures of buses for pleasure, no sir, I took these for historical record only. Actually I was bored waiting for someone and well, you know, the devil, idle hands etc etc. So, the buses in Hull are for most part red and cream or blue and white, very occasionally  black and that's just about all I can say about buses, they're not really my thing, honest.

Lurkin' Toad

If you're taking a short cut through the cemetery and get that feeling of something not quite right it might just be that giant toad that you glimpsed out of the corner of your eye ...

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Perfect timing

Followers of this blog with exceptional memories may recall a post involving the Bradford and Bingley building which, in 2012, had been empty since the crash of our esteemed banking sector way back in whenever. Well the building is still empty but some enterprising folks have pasted art works in the windows. So I took a position across the street to get my photo when this young man walked past just as, well, as you see...

Newland Homes

Way, way back in 1821 there was founded the Port of Hull Society for the Religious Instruction of Seamen originally to administer to the spiritual needs of sailors and their families but later also their welfare and educational wants and, more especially, the needs of  sailors' orphans. As demand grew a village of twelve 'cottage homes' (each named after one of the rich sponsors who had clearly not read Matthew 6:3!) was built in and around 1897 on  Cottingham Road and housed at one time 360 children. It had its own school and sanatorium. As the years rolled by with welcome changes in child care fewer and fewer children were being placed in  these homes and they were sold off in 2004 leaving only the school still running. There is an excellent history of all this here.

The homes were originally built with yellow bricks which over the years thanks to coal fires and so on  have become mucky, for want of a better word. When new buildings were erected nearby, they too had to be of yellow brick and they don't half stand out.

On the level

A restaurant on Newland Avenue was undergoing a makeover last week.  Formerly known as Piola, a busy Italian restaurant, it seems it is be called Level a name which gives nothing away.

Linnet and Lark

"Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters."

The Linnet and Lark on Princes Avenue was once a second hand car dealers and from appearances hasn't changed much, out with the rusting cut-and-shuts and in with fizzy beer pumps add a bit of what is called entertainment  from 'up and coming  local talent' (this goes by the soubriquet of 'The Sesh'; session being too difficult a word to remember) and leave the rest to your imagination. Oh I forgot to mention the large TV showing football matches, which apparently attracts the sort of crowd you might expect it to attract.

The church lurking in the background dates from the time (1897ish) when there were no pubs at all on Princes Avenue, yes I know that is difficult to believe when it seems every building on the street is now in the refreshment trade. It was built as a Pentecostal church but now belongs to the Elim Pentecostals, the difference is no doubt as great as that between selling cars or beer ...