This is not even the begining of the end ...

Here in the recently renamed town of Inertia things have taken a surprisingly active turn. As you see no actual construction is going on but there's active demolition, the breaking of eggs before the cooking of an omelette perhaps (though I wouldn't set the table just yet). Yep down goes the unused, unloved, effectively unoccupied for a mere forty years former Edwin Davis store. This store was a replacement for one damaged by the Germans in WW2 and that store was in its turn a replacement for one damaged by the Germans in WW1 ( I don't know what Edwin did to rile them  but they had his store on speed dial so it seems.) 

The BHS/Coop building behind is also due to tumble with the Council really wanting to keep the mural if at all possible (the proposed development has the mural poking out atop three storeys of glass like an unwanted inheritance ). We shall see.

Speaking of taking a surprisingly active turn I shall be back soon with more startling developments from Van Winkle City.

Promis'd joy!

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,

For promis'd joy!

News came a few weeks back that the Council had bought this building and the empty Edwin Davis building behind it. There's a grand plan to demolish both and erect shops, some housing and that thing most vital for a civic entity, an ice rink (every town should have one), the tout ensemble to be known as Albion Square. As I understand it the demolition will go ahead speedily, leaving the mural and a demolition site, no doubt artfully boarded off. Then, well then, as I understand it, the Council go out with a begging bowl and seek a commercial partner to pay for the scheme. Of course if no such partner is forthcoming then there is, again as far as I know, no plan B and the people of Hull face having a scaffolded façade fronting a very pleasant demolition site for the foreseeable future. 

The boarding around the BHS building shows artist's impressions of the scheme, involving encasing the mosaic in a glass atrium. You may draw whatever inference you wish by my inclusion of the waste bin in this picture.

Abandoned

An abandoned doll in...

an abandoned shop in ...

an abandoned street.


Guess what today's theme is at City Daily Photo ...

Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

Beckett's encouraging words came to my mind when I read in the local paper the glad tidings (or sad news if you wish) that this beacon of 1960's design on Bond Street is destined to be demolished. This sprawling concrete edifice was meant to be the first part of a much grander scheme involving yet more concrete on the opposite side of the street with the two parts linked via a bridge. But as "half assed" are the first two words learnt round here it was (thankfully, some may say) never completed. For some reason the council has ended up owning it and it stands almost completely empty. The largest tenant is, ironically, the council's very own planning department, I know you're shocked to learn that there is a planning department ... Anyhow the council now wishes to sell it for re-development along with the street itself which could be narrowed as it's "underused". As I mentioned at the start my source for all this is a newspaper so take the above with a large pinch of salt.