Been there for years ...

Another one of those "been there for years" shops non è più. This one on Holderness Road. Never mind we can always order a yard brush on line (free delivery!) and get DIY advice from You Tube. I mean, shops, who needs 'em?

Tell me the old, old story

Tell me the old, old story,
  Of unseen things above,
Of Jeremy and His glory,
  Of Labour and Its love

Tell me the story simply,
  As to a little child,
For I am weak and weary,
  And helpless and defiled.

Tell me the same old story,
Sell me the same old view,
Tell me the stale old story,
 For the many not the few.

Over in east Hull the Labour Party treats its constituents like infants who should always keep a-hold of Nurse, for fear of finding something worse. And yet in east Hull and some other Labour places they seem to lap it up. I went to see Jeremy Corbyn at a meeting in town on Monday evening in Zebedee's yard. I say I went but I did not stay and did not get to see the would be Prime Minister and hero of the working man. Zeb's Yard is a horrible cramped place, totally unsuitable for a meeting. The goofy bearded loon or Great Leader of The Most Advanced & Unified Labour Party turned up half an hour late according the paper and still the large mass of deluded fools, sorry that should read devoted believers, comrades and acolytes, hung around for yet another thirty minutes before no doubt he incanted the ritual benediction: "For the many not the few". Verily J C makes them whole.

Mrs May ("strong and stable") in the poster is shown with Mrs Thatcher's hair style. That's just so original, so subtle! She is being a total mean bitch; taking dinners from hungry school kids and telling pensioners they'll have to pay for their care out of the forced sale of their homes (neatly and rightly labelled a dementia tax) and wants to bring back fox hunting, in short saying the kind of nasty things you only say if you know you can't lose and she won't. When pressed she crumbles and stutters and seems to back track; she and the rest of this government are clearly not up to the job of leading anything but nevertheless she'll win by a country mile. You see for the rest of the country the idea of Jeremy Corbyn as PM brings out that old fear of finding something worse...

My apologies to Katherine Hankey.  

Wacked

Well that didn't last long, did it? A year ago I posted about it opening and now it's gone. Too wacky even for east Hull.

Friendly Crow

Have I mentioned before that I think crows are a bit special? This one simply would not budge until I took its picture, so what was I to do?

Meanwhile in another part of town (and on a different planet perhaps) there were complaints that crows on Holderness Road were getting too bold and "intimidating" people because (and now we reach new heights of fantasy) the local McDs was closed for a refurb! "Crows on the rampage in Hull because they can't get their McDonald's fix" ran the headline. For heaven's sake! Are the folk of East Hull who survived the Blitz without so much as a whimper suddenly afraid of a few feathered friends? Two crows were seen pecking at a dead pigeon which it was claimed they had killed! Something must be done about it! Well no, something must not be done about it. "Carrion Crows Eat Carrion" wouldn't really make much of a story but in the febrile imagination of a local journo it's practically Hitchcockian out on Holdy Road. Just to be absolutely clear on this, crows clear up the mess made by people; it's either them or rats, you make your choice.

The weekend in black and white is here.

A load of codswallop

I don't know about culture (that's probably not come out the way I meant it) but I do know there's a tidal wave of propaganda filling the streets of this incomparable town. And, as any student of physics should know, a wave moves nothing forward but simply shifts stuff up and down often causing destruction as it passes through. Anyhow the hunky hipster fisherman dressed in waterproofs and a sou'wester doing something unspeakable to a dead cod has surely got to win some sort of award for camp cliché of the year. More of this please!

Too slow

If you want that slice of tomato off the pavement don't dawdle or big brother will pinch it from under your beak and leave you chasing shadows. Two young crows were being a bit bold on Holderness Road the other day, even trying their luck on some café tables.

Don't be crackers ...

Had a little trip out to Holderness Road the other day and found that the once neglected and most despised of buildings that was the Elephant & Castle pub has become a fish and chip restaurant. All very good; but "Wackers"?

Who's smiling now?

The shop with a Lithuanian smile  for a name is now a mere AtCost, well at least it's still open ...

Sign of the cross

This is a new display on St Columba's on Holderness Road. Somehow I doubt any amount of new signage is going to get the punters into church although I grant it does have high brand recognition.

Will it be worth the wait?

Less haste, less speed is the motto in these parts as you well know. A mere three years since I posted that there was to be redevelopment on this site, eighteen months or more since it was cleared but now we are at last at the end of the beginning and a new block of shops is springing up before our very eyes, callooh callay! OK some of the problem lay with the planners who were unaware that this was industrial land (D'oh a scrap yard not give that away?) and couldn't be used for shops. So there was some legal hassle but that's all behind us now. I'd like to say that it will be worth the wait but alas it is to be a dreary unexceptional build that could be found anywhere in a thousand other towns. Meh!

The pawnbrokers and the shop next door seem to have survived all this kerfuffle. I suspect they'll outlast this new development.

Excellent Cafe

This is the Excellent Cafe on Holderness Road. If your nearest competitor is a branch of that ubiquitous purveyor of burnt cow meat called McDonald then there is, I suppose, little point in being modest. Despite its name the local council rates this place as only average for hygiene and so on; and I'm afraid images of the fare on offer are not quite to my taste. I think I'll give it a miss.

The weekend in black and white is here.

The Rank House

I posted about this house on Holderness Road some three years ago,(here). It was once the home of J Arthur Rank, he of the films that began with a man and a gong. I mentioned then that it was in a bit of a state. Well now it's being repaired and restored for social housing. In the story I read it was expected that the first tenants would be in by the end of this year, it looks like they'll have get a move on to achieve that. Still, let's keep our quibbling to a minimum.

Here is Brindley Street and you can keep it.

There is a little stretch of East Hull that is dedicated to the memory of scientists and engineers of by-gone eras. Near East Park we find Newcomen, Savery, Telford, Kelvin, Faraday, Watt, Lodge Streets and so on and last but not least here is Brindley Street.

Brindley? who he? I hear you ask, (well I asked). James Brindley was an 18^th century  digger  of canals (really more a planner, others did the digging). OK the Bridgewater Canal since you ask, the start of all this hectic movement of goods and commerce, Industrial Revolution, the modern age and all that jazz. All his fault ... put the blame on James.
Fourteen or so years ago we almost bought a house on this street, a five bed-roomed monster of a terraced house. Dirt cheap (then) but no garden and quite a depressing outlook. Ended up buying a house on Portobello Street further along Holderness Road (a big mistake!). I noticed the Brindley Street house  is back on the market (you can just about make out the For Sale sign ). Am I tempted? Hah!

Elephant & Castle

The Elephant and Castle on Holderness Road seems to have been for sale for years now. Anyhow it's boarded up, buddleia has taken over the window box and the paint is peeling off. Mind you it's not alone, there's many an empty boarded up shop on this stretch. I note the price has been reduced, even so, I doubt it'll be selling pints any time soon. The vogue nowadays seems to be to convert these sort of buildings into flats.

Old department store

The other day I went to East Park, a big mistake. Someone had turned it into a over sized playing field and filled it with thousands of screaming brats, yes, I'd forgotten it was still Easter Holidays and it seems the whole of east Hull had gone to the park for the day. Not a pretty sight. Strangely two of the park's attractions, if I may call them that, the water splash and the water park were not in action, neither were there any boats on the lake. Hull's parks department also seem to have taken a holiday. Anyhow, beating a hasty retreat I took this of what I think was once an old Cooperative department store on Holderness Road.

Have a nice day, Mr Turner

It may not come as a surprise to you to learn that there is little love lost between myself and the political powers that be in this area. A few weeks back a local MP, Karl Turner, blocked me on Twitter but not before calling me "meaningless"! Another local MP also blocked me after a mildly sarcastic comment about a box of chocolates and a long stemmed rose, they are such sensitive souls these politicos. Poor Mr Turner recently had to admit to misusing a Parliamentary email address on his Labour Party advertising, no great sin, I know, but hardly professional. And I might yet add to his woes: is that the House of Commons trademark portcullis sign I see adorning the offices of the East Hull Labour Party on Holderness Road? To quote Parliament's web site: "The principal emblem of the House is the Crowned Portcullis. It is a royal badge and its use by the House has been formally authorised by licence granted by Her Majesty the Queen. The designs and symbols of the House should not be used for purposes to which such authentication is inappropriate, or where there is a risk that their use might wrongly be regarded, or represented, as having the authority of the House." Oh dear, I do hope the House of Commons doesn't see this, well I won't tell if you don't.

Passing off as Pizza Parlours

Upper Holderness Road; Lower Beverley Road

I suspect that neither Mr Brando, Mr Pacino nor yet Mr Coppola are aware of these establishments and if Mr Puzo ever found out he'd have to make them an offer they couldn't refuse.

Curry House

I took this photo because I was intrigued by the overly large pots in the upstairs windows. This place is on Holderness Road and is, so I 'm told, the best curry house in Hull.

Could be any old street

Mersey Street is just an ordinary East Hull street of neat two-up two-down terraced houses most with their little satellite dishes. It runs off Holderness Road down to a primary school whose tower you can see in the distance. Oh there's the Croda wind powered generator lurking in the distance but other than that it's just a plain old street where nothing dramatic happens except this and sadly this and many, many years ago children from the school were involved in this but apart from all that, as far as I can tell, it's just an ordinary street but who can tell?.

The Bank

I'm guessing this particular bank on Holderness Road didn't suffer too much in the recent financial crises. This old Hull Savings Bank despite no longer taking deposits seems to have no liquidity problems.