A shot of shots

Newland Avenue, Hull

Now it's been a while since I studied la língua española (put it this way Franco was still regrettably Caudillo de España, Por la Gracia de Dios) and I really don't care that much but surely(or just maybe) that should be los chupitos? It doesn't matter much, I just liked the sign. This place is, as you might have guessed, a Mexican themed restaurant that opened recently on Newland Avenue. This street  is fast becoming what someone has described as a United Nations of food.  ¡Basta ya! Hasta luego.

Wicstun Express

Newland Avenue, Hull

Here's the bus from York stopping on Newland Avenue, but what all this Wicstun Express malarkey? Well Wicstun is the old name for Market Weighton, a small town somewhere between here and York. Oh verb sap 'Weighton' is pronounced something like 'wheaton' ...
The bus takes two hours to cover the 47 or so miles from York which hardly strikes me as galloping but then it does take the scenic route and stops along the way. As a marketing ploy they've adopted some stylized Viking complete with obligatory horned helmet. I'm not sure a Viking gives the impression of speed, they've more a reputation (thoroughly undeserved of course) for pillaging and general naughtiness. Vikings, of course, wouldn't have been seen dead in a poncey horned helmet and as roads were usually nonexistent or impassable they would have gone by boat up and down the Humber and been in York in a couple of hours with a full flood tide and no stopping at Wicstun or anywhere else for that matter. 

Apparition

This ghost of Xmas just passed was taken by Margot at a bus stop on Newland Avenue.

Weekend Reflections might be here if it's still going.

Triple X

Newland Avenue café habitués are no doubt waiting  with baited breath for this new coffee shop to open in the old video rental place. Whatever happened to renting videos (not that I ever did) and how soon will these coffee haunts become last year's thing? 

Things that go bump in the night

Seems ghosties and ghoulies and long-legged beasties are just not a surprise any more, too much commercialism has taken the chill out of the spooky. Or it could just be that it's difficult to feel any frisson of fear when the temperature's at all time high for the end of October. Well whatever Boo! there that scared yah!

Missing: 1 Tree

Somewhere in this one horse town lives a person who, a couple of weeks ago and in the early hours of the morning, took it upon themselves to remove a tree. Was the urge for a spot of surreptitious tree surgery keeping them awake at nights? Did the tree, a nine year old accacia (see below), offend some strange esthetic and so simply have to go ...? Were they cold and had no wood for their stove? I think we'll never know. 

When news of a second tree being removed at midnight surfaced a few days later the local rag began to speculate on a possible serial arboricide stalking the region, power saw in hand, "the Phantom Tree Chopper", that is until the local council fessed up to the second one. Anyhow the traders on Newland Avenue want the Council to put in another tree and there's a small reward for infomation but it's safe to say the police are stumped on this one.

Thank you Google Street View

Zebra

What can I say about this unique shop? Why is it called Zebra? Why does it have an elephant with a hat in the window ...  Why not?  Don't ask me, ask Ann, the owner who has been running this business for years now, only be prepared for a long chat. It's the sort of place where conversation seems to take precedence over selling stuff.  Zebra is on Newland Avenue and sells a vast array of arty crafty ethnic occult goods, cards, jewellery, goth stuff, hippy stuff, mermaids, you get the idea ... Well worth a visit.

That moment when the paint runs out ...

Continuing the 'Take Away Store' theme this pizzeria on Newland Avenue makes sport for its neighbours as Miss Austen might say when ordering her Margherita to go ...

On the level

A restaurant on Newland Avenue was undergoing a makeover last week.  Formerly known as Piola, a busy Italian restaurant, it seems it is be called Level a name which gives nothing away.

Red, White and Blue

A rather tattered old rag hanging over the bankrupt Blockbuster video store on Newland Avenue. The news today that GDP will finally creep back 2008 levels has hardly been met with dancing in the street but maybe if the local football team win the FA cup in week's time there may be some small celebration.

The weekend in black and white is here

Who stole Xmas?

Taken by Margot K Juby

This year it seems that Christmas on Newie Ave¹ has been cancelled, or rather the Chriggy lights have been cancelled due to lack of interest or funds or maybe the Grinch stole them. We are promised they'll be back next year and you must never break a promise to a child ... All is not lost though as there's going to be a Christmas 'event' next Wednesday when the road will be closed for the evening and there'll fairground rides and stalls and maybe Santa will pop in for a glass of sherry. Ho! Ho! Ho!

1 Newland Avenue, someone is going to have to compose a glossary of local terms for all those cultural visitors.

More marble and mosaic

Well here's the picture I was taking the other day when I was interrupted by our friends from eastern Europe. This is yet another old Jackson's store, now Sainsbury's, showing the marble and mosaic facade that was such a common feature of these stores. There I told you it was boring.

You take our picture?

So I'm taking a fairly boring picture on Newland Avenue when suddenly my camera, which has face recognition, goes crazy as these two guys were bobbing up and down in front of me. Would I take their picture? Why, of course! Turns out they were Polish and had clearly been enjoying a Friday afternoon in July and might have little recollection of this. 

I'll show the boring picture tomorrow.

Goodbye Goodfellows

Here was the Goodfellows supermarket on Sharp Street which had been closed for a while. It was knocked down, picked up, dumped in a big lorry and taken away. They (whoever they may be) intend to build houses on the site. Well nothing is ever as straight forward as that, is it? There's the problem of what is going to happen to the WW1 memorial that used to hang on the corner. It's a reminder of the hundred or so men from the street who went to war; many of whose descendants and relatives still live on Sharp Street. Now it's sitting in a council office waiting for the developers to make good on their promise to reinstall it. [ 1 ] Is that trouble brewing I can smell?

Newland Avenue

The date on the bridge 1882 is when Hull incorporated the village of Newland and made the road passable to traffic, before then this was known as Mucky Peg Lane. Newland Avenue is a most interesting street whose activities attract people both day and night. There are greengrocers, butchers, a fishmonger, several bakers and other food shops, including Polish, Chinese and Asian ones, hairdressers, florists, various specialist shops, cafés and many charity shops. In the evenings the takeaways, café bars and late-opening convenience stores and the Piper continue to attract people. So you can get many things on Newland Avenue nowadays except mucky pegs.

Piper

The Piper club is on Newland Avenue, the centre of student-land and an excellent old fashioned shopping street. It's website claims to "have something for everyone, across the week, with our eclectic mix of nights, from iconic mid-week mash-ups to established indie nights and retro cocktail nights"; so you have been warned.

If your shoes need mending drop in on Billy at the Heel & Key Bar, he's been there thirty or more years and he's the best in town.

Stop stój стой .....

Traffic comes to a halt when this burly bobby  raises his hand. No emergency just a small and colourful procession of immigrant societies down Newland Avenue, Hull earlier this year. The area around here is much favoured by immigrants and foreign students. You're just as likely to hear Polish, Chinese or some other language as native Hull version of English. 

The building above used to be a primary school, it had children from so many different countries it was known affectionately as the League of Nations.