Blame It on the Bossa Nova

There will be no more salsa nights at Pier Luigi's since it closed in October last year, a victim of the recession and the banksters' greed. I passed it the other day and this was the only sign of the once thriving Italian restaurant on Princes Avenue. The builders had moved in and were busy 'doing up' the place.

The Albert Memorial

If you scroll down to yesterday's posting you'll see a statue of a young Queen Victoria looking slightly to her left no doubt trying to glimpse her beloved Albert who stands fifty or so yards away and hidden by some shrubbery. The plaque is a fine example of Victorian oleaginous sycophancy. The statue was erected in 1868, seven years after the one to Queen Vic. You'd have thought they'd have put them closer together, poor old girl must have a crick in her neck after all these years.

Park Shots

 With temperatures well above average the park is a good place to take your granny for a walk,

 or go for a ride on your bike,

or catch up with the latest news and gossip.

Boom Town

A recent report stated that one in four shops in Hull were closed. Here on King Edward Street half the shops on this side are closed and showing no sign of being opened in the near future. To darken the economic skies further nearly 900 well paid engineering jobs are to be lost at a nearby BAE factory. North Hull has the highest ratio of jobseekers to opportunities in the country. Still to come the effects of the government's austerity measurements....Oh yeah, Hull is booming.
Something brighter tomorrow... jam perhaps.

Things to do while breathing your life away

I was waiting outside Marks & Spencer the other day slowly breathing my life away when I looked up and saw a reflection across the street. "Hmm", I thought, "if I move a few feet this way then ...they all line up nicely."

Heads of Banking

The main branch of HSBC in Whitefriargate is an imposing Victorian building that has these magnificent heads adorning it. I could have shown eleven separate but a collage is better I feel and in keeping with the one photo a day ethos of City Daily Photo.

Finishing Touches

Here at last the nearly completed Wilbeforce Health Centre. I showed you the plans and the initial construction here and here. Now they're putting the finishing touches to what is, in my humble opinion, quite possibly the ugliest building in town. I can't help but wonder whether that ghastly red pillar symbolises the bleeding dry of the NHS by wasteful projects such as this.

Amy, wonderful Amy ....

Here's a Hull heroine, Amy Johnson, captured in Portland stone.In the days when flights to far off places were headline news Amy Johnson was the star, flying off to Australia and South Africa breaking records all the while. In those days before 24 hour news and internet madness this was really big news with huge crowds gathering to see a plane land. I've managed to find a video which shows the enthusiasm for aviation in those days and also that English was spoken with terribly clipped vowels sounds almost like a foreign language.



There's also a song that demonstrates that music was no better then than now.

Time to go home

This is the newish Hull Interchange or combined bus and rail station. Straight ahead for buses to all parts of Hull and hereabouts. Trains are to the left from Paragon Station.

Beverley Road Public Baths

A fine example of Edwardian civic pride on display here. Not one but two domes all copper; there's posh. Opened in 1905 the baths served two purposes, recreational and hygenic. Many of the surrounding houses lacked bathrooms and so residents used the excellent slipper baths which were still in use in the 1980s; I know, I used to use them and very nice they were too! The swimming pool was used at one time for the preservation of an ancient wooden boat that was found on the shores of the Humber, there a link here. A campaign to save the baths from demolition in the 1990s was successful and they were renovated and are now in constant use; the council have a page here. There's a bit more about the building here.

Noble thoughts from all directions

This statue is in the garden of the Transport Museum (now with the pretentious name of the Nelson Mandela Garden) and was paid for by Hull's Indian community.  It was unveiled in 2004 by Lord Putnam no less and a whole host of other dignitaries.

Drop Zone

Here's the rich brown river Hull near the entrance to the old Victoria Dock. It's fairly notorious as a place where those of an unsteady gait are prone to fall in the water and get stuck in that glorious mud. There are calls to erect a fence but I feel that would end a long tradition of mocking the misfortunes of others.

A welcoming face?

This splendidly cross-eyed face peers out over the entrance to the old Westwood workhouse and infirmary in Beverley, a place where the poor and destitute were housed and put to work. Over the years the workhouse was closed and the infirmary became a NHS hospital. Despite intense local opposition the hospital is due to close and be replaced by a new state of the art building which I bet will not have a sculpture like this welcoming patients.

Copper Beech

I'm cheating a bit here.Of course it doesn't look like this now; this was taken in May last year. These trees turn green through the Summer and then yellow in the Autumn. This is a particularly fine specimen that's actually growing through the wall that you can see on the corner.

No dogs allowed

Dogs are not welcome on Bridlington's beaches during the Summer months for obvious reasons. Come the end of this month and they'll be let slip to enjoy the miles of sand and sea and sun.

Can we have our statue back please?

In an outrageous attack on civlised values a small group of lowlifes stole the statue Voyage from its plinth during the Summer. At over 300kg it's reckoned to be worth about £1200 in scrap so if you're in a pub and a dodgy looking guy offers you a bronze statue cheap you know who to call.

Prinny Ave

Here's Princes Avenue or Prinny Ave as it is usually called. Is it just a Hull thing to abbreviate names of streets? So Cottingham Road becomes Cott Road and Beverley Road is Bev Road.
At one time there were no pubs or cafes on this street now it the place for 'continental style' eating out with ten or so establishments. It does not have the bad reputation that the city centre has for loutish behaviour and as a consequence is quite a popular area.

Three heads are better than one

This curious carving is on Cottingham's church. I'm guessing it had deep meaning when originally carved possibly something theological (the old three-in-one trick) or perhaps it symbolises some mediaeval merchant banker capable of saying three conflicting statements while looking out for number one. Hmmm.

Cliff Mill, Hessle

Close to the Humber Bridge stands this old mill which was built, so the web tells me, in 1806. In case you were wondering that small change in height in the foreground counts as a cliff in these parts.

Look thy last on all things lovely

Just off Hallgate there's a small garden with seats and ringed by trees and bushes. It was built as a memorial for the dead of two world wars. It's a nice place to sit for a few minutes and get away from the hurly burly of Cottingham life. Has Cottingham ever had a hurly or even a burly?
Now, however, many of the trees are to be removed. OK some of them are diseased like this cherry but some are being cut down for the sin of having grown too tall and some plum trees are guilty of growing plums which then fall on the path.They've been doing that for 80 or more years but someone's just noticed and complained. It's a shame but then we all know what councils are like.

Black Over Will's Mother's

Here's Bridlington all lit up in the September sun against the blackest of black skies. It didn't rain; least not while I was there.

Sunshine and Showers

A stroll along Bridlington's new promenade in September means taking your chances with the weather.

Bridlington Promenade

I've mentioned before how Bridlington has been improving itself with an upgrade of its seafront fittings. This is the new promenade running for about a mile or so to the south of the town. It is edged by continuous seating; imagine a mile long bench! The white building is the Spa, an art deco renovation costing millions.

The view from the bank.

The newish Barclay's bank has wonderful blue reflective windows so I had to point the Fuji and click. That's the City Hall in the background.

Taking Liberties

Here's what's left of Pearson Park gates. They were put up in the 1860s when carriages had a horse or two in front of them and well-to-do folks lived in those town houses that line the approach. Now the horses and the money have gone.What you see here are the skeletal remains of a fine set of Victorian iron gates that once had fancy decorations on top and actual gates (see here). The gates went in the last war I'm guessing and the fancy decoration was rmoved by Hull council in a fit of health & safety vandalism and stupidity sometime in the 70s.

***
Now for a totally separate issue. It has come to my notice that the domain directrss.co.il is using the RSS feed from this site and probably from other blogs to make virtually a direct copy only with their advertising. I don't mind people "borrowing" a picture or two but to copy the whole blog is taking liberties. I have reported these offenders to Blogger. If anyone finds their site has been used likewise I suggest they report the matter as well. The following message is for the owners of directrss.co.il.

אתר זה מוגן בזכויות יוצרים ואתה הפרת זכויות היוצרים שלי.  

Up tails all!

The Sick Rose

O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm,

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.

William Blake

Across the road from the Bull is one of Hull's many closed pubs. This one has a history of attracting what can only be called a bohemian clientele, thieves, drunkards, imps, pimps and banjo players. Finally the landlords helped themselves to the takings. The observant will notice it is on the corner of Park Lane; this is one of Hull's little jokes, Mayfair is just up the road; as you can see it's more Old Kent Road.

Local Perspective

This is the West Bulls (is a bull theme developing here?) which is at the end of my street and which you might call my local if I ever went into such establishments.

Other perspectives are on view here.