Saturday 31 December 2011

True Grit

This year has been the second warmest on record and this month has been 1C above average. All of which means this place is pretty redundant for the moment. It's the Beverley grit depot for the council's highway department. Last year they nearly ran out of supplies in December. Still there's plenty of Winter left.

Friday 30 December 2011

Chemistry, boring?

They say you should never judge a book by its cover and maybe the same applies to buildings. This drab 1950s brick building is possibly the most boring building in Hull but it has played an important part in the development of the modern world. It's difficult to imagine a world without liquid crystal displays; they're on your phone, your clocks, instrument panels, monitor screens and so on. Without the work of Professor Gray in this building developing liquid crystals that were stable at room temperature we might be living in a very different world. Who said chemistry is boring?

Thursday 29 December 2011

Brynmor Jones Library


In the dim distant days of last year I posted about this building (here) so I thought I'd show a different angle. I have to say this is an odd building; the massive cube looks like an aberrant addition to a more modest brick building whose art deco entrance is still in use today.


Wednesday 28 December 2011

No Trains

I took this on Sunday when, for some reason, there were no trains running, which is just as well if you're going to play about on the tracks.


Tuesday 27 December 2011

Sunsets and Puddles

Taken by Margot K Juby


Last year's silly cold weather has been followed this year with even sillier weather. Temperatures today(14C/57F) are near a record high for late December. With clear skies we've been having some stunning sunsets; this one captured in the puddles of Snuff Mill Lane.




Monday 26 December 2011

Creep down the alleyway

You never quite know what is waiting for you when you go down the alleyway's of Hull.

Sunday 25 December 2011

Saturday 24 December 2011

Winter sunset

They close the park at sunset; that's about two minutes after I took this shot.

Friday 23 December 2011

Beverley Minster

After yesterday's long range shot here's one a bit closer. I know what you're thinking; why didn't I stand a little further back to take this shot? Well I would have but in the 18th century some inconsiderate person built a row of houses right alongside so I couldn't, now if only they'd thought .... This is the western end of the minster and I'm sure you'll agree it's a fine piece of gothic construction.

Thursday 22 December 2011

Minster money pit

Here's Beverley Minster taken last Spring, you can just make out the blossom in hedgerow.This is the view from the aptly named Long Lane; I guess this view hasn't changed in many centuries. 
This imposing building, built by an old power long gone, is now a tourist attraction with an insatiable demand for money to keep the rain out. I suspect it was ever thus.

Tuesday 20 December 2011

christmas in hull dot co dot uk

When the early christians took over the pagan end of year festivals I suspect they had little idea of their own feast being taken over in turn by pursuit of sales. Still the lights are pretty enough and the crowds a lot thinner than in previous years; after all you can do it all online now.

Monday 19 December 2011

Side Elevation

Here is 'One Humber Quays'; an office block built with taxpayers' money as part of a £17 million pound development in 2006. It stood half empty for five years whilst it housed a branch of the World Trade Centre. Earlier this year the WTC decamped to smaller premises. Under the new government's policy of dismantling anything and everything the old government did the place was sold, in what can only be called a depressed market, for considerably less than cost. This is what happens when you have a 'build it and they'll come' approach to redevelopment; you build it and they come and they take it for a song. It goes without saying that no politician or official was hurt during the making of this flim flam.

Sunday 18 December 2011

The Emigrants

This statue on the waterfront near Humber Dock commemorates the more than two million European emigrants who passed through Hull on their way to America in the 19th century until the outbreak of war in 1914. That's a lot of people moving themselves out of Europe and into America; I wonder if America would be so welcoming to another flood if times get tough in Europe. 
If you're a Liverpudlian and you think this looks familiar that's because there's an identical copy at the Albert Dock, Liverpool. The sculpture is by Neil Hadlock, Mark DeGraffenried and Taylor Hadlock from Utah and was donated by a Mormon led foundation in 2001, here's a link to more on this.

Saturday 17 December 2011

Fun with the sun

The December sun sets early and casts some really long shadows. The mill above I've shown before here. The temptation to take a silly picture was overwhelming so I gave in.


Friday 16 December 2011

Winter draws on again

So to Westwood and another visit to this old chestnut tree that I showed round about this time last year. This year it's mild with no real frosts or snow unlike the deep freeze of last year. It can stay like this as far as I'm concerned.

Thursday 15 December 2011

Wednesday 14 December 2011

Bah Bah Humbug

Betty Boop and a sheep standing outside a shop can only mean one thing; it's Xmas and the shops are getting desperate for our money.

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Closed for the season

If you were to stand here anytime between, say, May and the end of September you'd be surrounded by crowds of day trippers and holiday makers stuffing their faces with fish and chips and burgers while gawping at the harbour. There'd be dozens of gulls to help them consume their repast. Come in December, however, and you have the place to yourself; just be sure to wrap up warm.

Monday 12 December 2011

Rising of the moon

I didn't get to see the lunar eclipse yeserday but I did catch this nearly full moon rising over Bridlington on Friday.

Sunday 11 December 2011

Going down of the sun

The storm I mentioned yesterday has also meant that the fishing fleet has had to stay in harbour along with a visiting pirate ship.

Saturday 10 December 2011

Stormy weather

Yesterday we had the first real storm of the Winter with high winds and some heavy rain. The sea today was still very rough and this wave nearly caught me out.

Friday 9 December 2011

Reflective Colours

Oh no, not another toad! I thought I'd seen the back of these critters until I came across this little dazzling beauty outside the Arc building on Queen Street. It's part of last year's 'Larkin with Toads' ballyhoo. The artist is Sue Kershaw who has a website here.
Before these toads drive me completely mad I must tell you the Larkin with Toads scheme was voted the "Most Remarkable Experience in Hull and East Yorkshire" and was also the winner of the Yorkshire Tourism Event of the Year award. Enough, that's it; no more toads ....

Thursday 8 December 2011

Neptune

Built in 1794 the Neptune Hotel in Whitefriargate was supposed to cater to captains and merchants using the newly opened docks. However things didn't quite work out and the building became the Customs House in 1815 until 1912. Nowadays the banqueting hall is the staff canteen of Boots the chemist. This little figure is the keystone of the entrance archway.

Wednesday 7 December 2011

Autumn Cemetery

By Margot K Juby
 This angel is in Spring Bank cemetery, a wonderful place to wander through especially in Autumn.

Tuesday 6 December 2011

In memoriam

In the Transport Museum gardens there's this tiny memorial to the human cost of the motor industry. It is about a foot tall. Last year 1,850 people were killed on the roads of UK; over the years millions have been killed or injured. If the internal combustion engine were a drug it would have been banned years ago. I see our city streets as a killing field and pedestrians as innocent victims of the drive for profit. And before you ask, no, I don't drive.
If you're of a curious disposition or are just plain morbid the BBC have a page on UK road traffic casualities here.

Sunday 4 December 2011

Swan Song

Here's a mute swan quietly drifting on East Park's boating lake. Mute swans are supposed to be silent until just before they die when they make a beautiful song. I don't know how true that is but someone has composed a tune based on the DNA of a swan! Isn't the internet a wonderful thing?




Saturday 3 December 2011

The Great Visitation of Cholera

 Lost in the wonderfully overgrown Spring Bank cemetery is this slightly leaning monument to a disastrous cholera outbreak in Hull in 1849. The plaque below gives the chilling numbers of dead; we can only imagine the horrors of those days. Nowadays with our clean drinking water and improved sanitation cholera is practically unknown in the UK but it stills kills over 100,000 mainly in the developing world.

Friday 2 December 2011

Level Crossing

Waiting for the train to pass this little crowd gathered at the crossing on Spring Bank in October during Hull Fair week. I've noticed that there aren't many people in my photos so I'm making up for that with a whole bagful. 

Thursday 1 December 2011

Dive, dive, dive

The theme for this month's City Daily Photo is 'Action shot'. Well I trawled through my photos and came to the conclusion that my photos are possibly the most inactive on the planet. Then I stumbled on this forgotten image. Here's a red throated diver just about to pounce on some unsuspecting fish in Bridlington harbour.
If you want to see what others have made of this theme just click here.  

Wednesday 30 November 2011

Hull Interchange


If you arrive in Hull by coach this is where you will debus. This is a much fancier place than the old windswept car park that coaches used to arrive at and I suppose it does give a better first impression. This shot shows how the new bus station has taken over part of the rail station; if you go through the station you end up here.

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Hepworth's Arcade

Tucked away beside the market is this little gem; a Victorian arcade of small shops selling all sorts from jewellery and hi-fi to harmonicas and itching powder! It was built in 1894 for a Leeds tailor called Hepworth. It looks brand new after a sympathetic renovation a few years ago.

Monday 28 November 2011

Flyover

This structure (yet another award winning example of the concrete pourer's art) carries traffic across town; it's that good old A63 that I've mentioned so many times before. Here it's been given a lift over a roundabout on Hessle Road.

Sunday 27 November 2011

Green Bricks

Sometimes it pretty obvious how a pub gets its name. This one is by the Humber Dock.

Saturday 26 November 2011

Hairy Horse

There's a real problem with horses in Hull. It's quite common to find horses tethered on strips of grass beside roadways or on grassy areas in housing estates even school playing fields. The Council are now confiscating the horses and their owners have to pay a fee to get them back. I can't understand why people would own up to a dozen or more horse and have no land on which to graze them.
The friendly fellow is quite safe though; he's in a field near my house

Friday 25 November 2011

Rose and Crown

You might imagine that this is a fine olde English pub out of the Elizabethan age and , in a way , you'd be right. There's been a pub of sorts here for over 400 years but the building you see here is fine old mock Tudor from the 1930s. Never mind, if you fancy a day at Beverley Races then the Rose and Crown is but a short walk from the racecourse.  

Thursday 24 November 2011

Heads on back to front

I suppose for some a grave vandalised is a bit sickening; in Hull it's par for the course. This little statue is lucky to have been put back together even if it is somewhat wrongly oriented.

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Princes Quay

When you've climbed to the rooftop car park of the shopping centre there's a helpful sign to tell you where you are.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Bring on the naked ladies ...


I've mentioned the lengths to which Beverley has gone to attract visitors with its ancient crafts and guilds trail; well here's yet another trail. Sadly not a trail of unclad ladies but of paintings by a local artist Frederick Elwell (who?). Dotted around the town are many reproductions of his work and those of his sister and for those who are interested (and there must be some, surely?) you get to walk around and cross them off your list. Here's another to whet your appetite or put you off completely.


Monday 21 November 2011

Speed Limit

Speed limits are a custom more honour'd in the breach than the observance. There are reports that the maximum speed limit should be raised from 70 to 80 mph. It's said to be in the interest of  putting "Britain back in the fast lane of global economies". It's crazy, I know, but this government is reduced to trying anything.
This is the approach to Beverley from the Westwood. There's a tight little bend ahead so obeying the limit is advisable.

Sunday 20 November 2011

Newbegin again

The name Newbegin comes from old English meaning 'new building'. In the 14th century I suppose they were new; nowadays all those 'new' buildings have been replaced by Georgian town houses and look quite old.