Deserts of vast eternity

The cunning plan to make Hull's tenure of the title of UK City of Culture as miserable as possible seems to be working ever so well. Above is what used to be called Holy Trinity Square but no doubt due to changes in the political climate is possibly called Perfidious Albion Plaza or Mea Culpa Square or some such. Those of an age can maybe recall the neutron bomb and how it was to take away the people and leave the buildings (a wonderful device) ... Anyhow thousands were spent clearing it up, installing mirror pools, plans made for food festivals and so on and they had to go and invent a plague just out of spite. They need not have bothered I wasn't going to go anyway.

The statue of Andy Marvell still stands, though really the viral iconoclastic nonsense of pulling down statues seems to have peaked and died away here much like an English summer. I read that this MP for Hull during interesting times (civil war, regicide, restoration and what have you; OK not of interest to everybody I know...) was a master of self-preservation. I wonder what the man who wrote this:

Now let us sport us while we may,

And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power...

would make of the servile, bedwetting, safety-first, neurotic, mask devouring cowards that want to impose their fear upon us all. But then maybe he too would mask-up, rub in the alcohol gel and conform; self-preservation, dear boy, self-preservation. Gah!

Just the other day I was saying ...

... what Trinity Square needed to make it complete after the installation of its very expensive reflective puddles was a dozen or so steel cylinders, make them about twelve foot tall, perforated and accessible so you can look up at the sky; oh and lit up at night. You see someone was listening ...

This well ventilated installation (described as "thought provoking" but what the provoked thoughts might be I leave to your imagination) is the latest in the seemingly never ending Year of Cultural Largesse. It does have one good thing going for it: It'll be gone by next year.

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Tangled up in blue

Over in Trinity Square the finishing touches to this year's marathon makeover were being put in place the other day. I noticed this figure wrapped in blue plastic. It's the reinstated statue of Andrew Marvell. This seems to be a more modest presentation as previously he was atop four or five steps and surrounded by four concrete balls. Naturally those steps were the place for alkies and druggies to while the day away. Where will they go now, those poor souls?

And jumping over to the other side of town to the junction of King Edward Street and Jameson Street this was the scene late on Wednesday still with a rush to complete by Christmas Eve. Still with the old orange barriers and still a fair few paving blocks to be laid. I haven't been back since then but the local paper reports that Jameson Street, off to the left, is now clear of barriers though the response from readers seems somewhat mixed.

And as ever a job is not done until it has been seen to be done by at least five other workers ...

If you've reached this far it only remains for me to wish you all a "Happy Whatever It Is You May Be Celebrating" this exceedingly mild December 25 ...

Purple flag

Lamp posts in town have been draped with purple ribbons for a few weeks now but I didn't get round to finding out why until this weekend. It's a recognition that if you go for a night out in Hull you are most unlikely to encounter trouble. Hull it seems has been awarded a Purple Flag for being  civilised or in the words of some bumf I read "clean, safe, vibrant and enjoyable with something for everyone". So now you know as much as me.

Charterhouse Reflections

 

Surrounded by the decay and demise of Hull's riverside industries, is an oasis of calm and tranquillity. This is the Charterhouse built by Sir Michael de la Pole in 1384 to house "13 poor men and 13 poor women, feeble or old". The original house was knocked down during the war, not the last war, but the Civil War in 1643 or thereabouts. It was rebuilt, knocked down and rebuilt as you see it in 1780. It is still a home for elderly with 34 apartments.

The poet and MP for Hull, Andrew Marvell lived here as his dad was master of the Charterhouse from 1624 to1640.

Marvell of Hull

 

Andrew Marvell, MP and poet, is here positioned in front of his old school in Trinity Square. The building is now the Hands on History Museum which had we but world enough, and time, is still not worth the effort of going round.

 In 1921 Hull celebrated the tercentenary of Andrew Marvell's birth with city-wide events; I wonder if they went to the same lengths as today's motley crew with the Larkinalia. Were the streets filled with gaudily painted coy mistresses? Sadly my information on this is lacking.