Leni Riefenstahl without the uniforms

I took this a few days ago by accident almost as the camera was playing tricks and I needed to see if it was working properly. So anyhow I notice that this annual shindig, the Freedom Festival,  that started as a one-off one-day thing a few years ago has now grown and grown and grown an awful size to a five day "celebration of arts, community and humanity". Do any of these need celebrating? I think not, arts should be suppressed and certainly not state sponsored (not a penny), community is a word used by crooks to get elected and humanity couldn't give a monkey's for Hull or its stupid festival. Should the taxpayer be coughing up for this? I am certain not. Nevertheless the grasping arty types, filled with a sense of their own entitlement, demanding (because hell they're celebrating art innit? and the community whatsit called? and the humanity thing yeah, oh the humanity!) and getting their grants from the numpty Hull City Council and other agencies filled with taxpayers hard earned money. The event is, of course, a load of phoney baloney batshit! It's five nights of torch lit parades (think Leni Riefenstahl without the uniforms or the stage direction) and clowning around likely to appeal to the community and humanity innit.

Yankee Meal

Here we are on Hessle Road the noted culinary centre of the City of Culture. To tempt your palette with some fine American fare there are pizzas of various hues, Donner kebab, Hamburger (with or without a scrumptious cheese topping) and Frankfurter ... all with French Fries to go. If all that seems just a little too American they do sell a spiced chicken dish described as "Southern Fried", must be some novel Home Counties recipe ...  

Seriously though the place has great reviews and if this is the kind of stuff you like then this is the kind of place you should try.

Omne solum forti patria ...

Omne solum forti patria est ut piscibus aequor, 

ut volucri vacuo quicquid in orbe patet

Hull being the cultured place that it is it should come as no surprise to find Ovid quoted on the corner of Hessle Road and the Boulevard. 

"A handsome and spacious new establishment"

Mr Craft and his company it appeared had designs to have stores on the main roads into Hull. Starting in the mid 1880s with Beverley Road by 1912 they had one on Witham and one on Anlaby Road and by 1914 would have had one on Hessle Road had not an Archduke and his wife taken a wrong turn in Sarajevo. So anyhow Crafts' Ltd proudly opened their Hessle Road store in May 1919. The local paper, the Hull Daily Mail, was there and gave it a big write up. We are given a description of this "innovation for Hessle Road" that reads like an architectural review: "As one approaches the new premises, the impression is of an effectively designed building, of lofty proportions, with distinct architectural features. The design suggests a modern business establishment on the lines of the great London stores. The fabric is a Royal Doulton terracotta facade with alternate squares and graceful circular columns. On the ground floor are two large semi-island windows and two large side windows. The building is surmounted with an imposing dome." I'm guessing this was cut and pasted or whatever was the style in those days from a Crafts' Ltd press release. The ground floor we are told sold "goods in the carpet line, dress and cotton fabrics, gentlemen's outfitting goods, boots, etc.. The first floor we are informed ""will be of great interest to the ladies, for here are to be found the most modern underclothing, baby linen, smart blouses and the latest fashionable hats, effectively displayed at prices which appear to be most reasonable." It ends optimistically: "It is safe to say that Messrs Craft's new stores... will be quickly appreciated."...

Maybe the stores were appreciated I don't know. I can say that today there are no Crafts' stores in Hull. I can find no reference to what happened to these dreams stores, maybe the downturn in the 20s and 30s was too much, or maybe they spent too much on terracotta columns and imposing domes (which, by the way, seems to have disappeared). The handsome and spacious establishment now sells camping equipment and outdoor clothing: The store website informs us: "You’ll find everything from jackets, fleeces, t-shirts, trousers and shorts, hoodies, base layers (???) and workwear ." Maybe they should get the HDM to do them a write up.

Wanna buy another bank or two?

As the money flowed in during the boom times of  the turn of last century so the banks thought it wise to make a presence on Hessle Road. So substantial buildings adorned, as was the style in those days, with the symbols of strength and security were built to supply the needs of the local trawler owners, skippers and three day millionaires (though perhaps not so much the latter). Lions with shields were the choice here on the Yorkshire Bank ...

...and a shield with lions at Barclays.

No matter, now the money is now no longer flowing the banks are both empty and for sale along with the strength and security.

Gold Medal Post Box, Hessle Road

Can it really be five years since I posted about the golden phone box outside the unemployment office? It had been painted gold after some local lad won a gold medal in the boxing at the London Olympics. I knew they'd also painted a pillar box gold somewhere on Hessle Road but had not come across it until now. OK I admit I wasn't really looking very hard, boxing, Olympics not really being my thing ... Well anyway here it is looking in need of new coat of the gold stuff. There's a wee plaque on the side that tells you all about it. It says ... well you can read it yourself.

The pillar box itself has the monogram of King Edward VII so dates between 1901 and 1910, the boom years of Hessle Road.

Dairycoates, Hessle Road

This pub was built in the mid 1870's to cater for the thirsts of railway workers at the engine sheds of the Hull and Selby Railway. The railway arrived in the 1830s and transformed what was an agricultural hamlet with a population of just three in 1823 into one of the largest  engine shops in the north east. To this then add the arrival of St Andrew's Dock for the fishing fleet in 1883 and you can see how Dairycoates, a veritable boom town, might be spreading eastwards to meet the westward surge of Hull just two miles down the road. By the turn of the 20th century the union was complete with all signs of agriculture long gone and Dairycoates just another busy and overcrowded area of the city as Hull continued to surge out westward towards Hessle and Anlaby. 

Today no one with an ounce of sense uses steam engines so the engine sheds are long gone. The former rail track is now the busy A63 dual carriage way of ill repute. Iceland's decision to extend its fishing limits and other factors including the EU saw off the fishing fleet. St Andrew's Dock is now a silted up mess with dereliction and vandalism a real problem The area is given over to supermarkets like ASDA and Lidl and to small industrial firms. I doubt if even three people now live in the area of the original hamlet. All that seems to remain is this colourful pub, a nearby Dairycoates Avenue and a flyover known as the Dairycoates Flyover.

The Half Way, Hessle Road

That's half way between Hessle and Hull. As a crow flies it's about four and a half miles from the centre of old town Hull to Hessle's bustling heart so maybe it's five or so miles on the ground.  A fair walk but hardly exhausting. Nevertheless you'd need some refreshment if going to either destination, and if overcome by dread or fatigue you could rest up at the Half Way Hotel.  This place, by the look of it built in the first half of the 19^th century when Hessle Road was a turnpike and ran through open fields, is no longer a hotel but still refreshes so I'm told. The large mural I showed the other day is on the far side.

Annoying lamp post thingies, Hessle Road

What can I say about these odd decorative features attached to street lights? I don't know who made them, when they went up or anything at all about them other than their obvious local theme. They quite interesting but also a bit annoying as you have to be at a certain angle before they catch the light and reveal the picture within. There's a fair few of them; I limited myself to four.

PS: I've just found out that the local rugby league team won their cup final at Wembley for the second year in a row. So there'll be much rejoicing on Hessle Road and thereabouts.

ASDA, Hessle Road

If you look at old maps of Hessle Road you'll find the area between it and the docks along the Humber crammed with housing, every inch taken up with dwellings for the families of fishermen, rail workers and so on. The 60's and 70's saw much of this quasi-slum demolished and people shipped out to the sunlit uplands of Bransholme and Orchard Park. This left a large open space on the edge of town and as nature abhors a vacuum so in rushed a superstore, ASDA. It's a large, bland and inhuman space (now owned by Walmart) but at least does have windows to reflect the mural I showed the other day.

Weekend Reflections are here.

Cup Final Fever

OK fever may be an bit over the top but the local rugby league team's second trip to Wembley in two years (it seems they won last year, who knew?) is sure to clear the streets around Hessle Road this Saturday.  This guy didn't seem to be having much trade with his flags and so on but that was on Tuesday. I'm sure excitement will be at boiling point by now ... or maybe not. I don't even know who they are playing ... (*goes off and Googles for a minute*) ... Wigan Warriors, there you go... hope it's a nice day for them.

King Cod

Right, let's get these monsters out of the way. Hull has recently put up several memorials to trawlermen lost at sea and there's something of fishing heritage thing developing on Hessle Road. As there's no money in fishing any more maybe there's a bob to made out of tourism ... So for whatever reason money from the City of Culture paid for these murals on Hessle Road. Local artists worked with the guys from Northern Ireland who did Big Lil to produce what are monumental images. ("Cor ain't it big" says I, "It's the size of  houses" says Margot, who notices these things.) Being about fishing there's a King Cod motif which is clear on the triptych below but you have to peer at the fisherman's hand to see his tattoo is the self same Cod. I think what they lack in artistic merit they more than make up with imposing size and they are clearly much loved by the folks around here; one of whom was walking along and found his granny was on the wall, must have been a nice surprise.

More murals are planned I suspect this little fellow will reappear.

Mural Monday is here.

152 & 154 Hessle Road

In the late 19^th century a businessman by the name of William Henry Franklin seeing the need for shoes and boots in the boom town of Hull set up the fabulously named Public Benefit Boot and Shoe Company to go with this glorious moniker the company's logo was a horse drawn boot. This building designed by our old friend Alfred Gelder's company in 1896 was one of several stores in Hull in what had become a national chain. For what was effectively just a shoe shop it is a tad grand in the Flemish Renaissance Revival style. I note the ornate decoration above the first floor windows is only on one side which I find rather pleasing, can't be having too much frippery. It is, of course, grade 2 listed. It still sells boots though not for the public benefit needless to say.

I took me a walk down Hessle Road and along the way took a shed load of pictures so the next few days, possibly weeks, will feature this  part of town which was the centre of the fishing community in Hull, unless something better crops up or I get bored.

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.

Destruction of the Temple

The City Temple, Hessle Road, formerly a Primitive methodist church then Elim Pentacostal, was in use for a hundred years before it closed in 1984 since when time and idle hands for whom the devil has found a use have taken their toll. It now stands derelict and in danger of complete collapse, there were plans to make flats but the economy fell upon hard times as you're all too aware.

The fishermen of England go down to the sea in ships

Sometimes in the fog of war regrettable incidents happen that, if they did not involve the loss of life, appear to be farcical and if not utterly ridiculous. Thus, in a dispute between Russia and Japan in October 1904, the Russian Navy fired upon British trawlers in the Dogger Bank area of the North Sea, believing them to be Japanese torpedo boats. The British trawler Crane was sunk and two fishermen from Hull lost their lives. Other boats were also attacked and another fisherman later died of his wounds. Compounding their error, the Russians then started firing on themselves; killing at least one Russian sailor and an Orthodox priest on board a Russian cruiser. The only reason more damage wasn't done is that the Russian Navy couldn't shoot straight.

Unsurprisingly, the British Government took a dim view of all this, especially as Britain was allied to Japan at the time. Compensation, to the tune of £66,000, did manage to calm things.

The statue was unveiled in 1906 and shows the dead fisherman George Smith. The other two dead fishermen were William  Legget and Walter Whelpton. It stands at the junction of Hessle Road and the Boulevard, in the centre of the old fishing district. 

(Unless my memory is playing tricks with me, and it might well be; this statute was another of those that sat upon a public convenience; like Queen Vic and King Billy. The conveniences have now gone and so has just about all the fishing fleet.)