Billboard

This site that was to have had an eighteen or twenty-two storey hotel on it at one time, the plan described so accurately by a councillor as looking like a packet of cigarettes, has been cleared and rolled flat to be a car park. You wanna see the other side of this, I know you do ... here then in glorious technicolour.

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Any excuse

I took this back in February but having already posted umpteen times about the tidal flood barrier could not find an excuse to post it yet again. Now this really useful bit of kit has gone and gotten itself listed building status so, anyway, that's my excuse for yet another barrier post. Ignore the silly shadow it just seems to follow me around.

Grainy Day Photos

If these pics of the tidal barrier seem a bit grainy that's because some idiot (that would be me) left the camera at a ridiculous ISO setting of 3200 (don't ask) and didn't realise that, unlike my old camera, it does not go back to auto when turned off.

I think you can just about make the word #city on the tower part of that 'see your words in print' thing that I mentioned yesterday. And as luck would have it a passing tourist asked me all about this so I was able to do an impersonation of a tourist guide. He seemed quite impressed by the place but then he gets to go home in the evening.

Amusing Misuse of Resources

Many lifetimes ago I used to use Linux as my operating system, I vaguely remember concerns about the mighty Microsoft taking over the world and other silly nightmares that were common at the time. Anyhow between figuring out the many and varied scripts that kept the computer swimming and wondering how to get a wifi dongle recognised I was made aware of a program called AMOR. AMOR caused a little figure to appear at the top of a window which would then run along and fall off or it would just wander aimlessly around the screen. Utterly pointless and, of course, AMOR stood for Amusing Misuse of Resources. So what has brought that fascinating snippet of my past to mind? Well here on Humber Street an iron dais has been erected which at night time allows a person to have their spoken words captured by voice recognition software and then projected dot-matrix style on the flood barrier at the other end other street. Here's an example from the local paper. I'm sure it's all very hi-tech and we are told the machine will 'learn' to recognise the Hull accent and, of course, it comes with the usual culture-speak nonsense about changing the way folk see public spaces yada yada yada. But come on now, admit it; it's just a big toy and about as much use a wobbly widget on an X screen. 

Oh and as for the Linux thing forget it, I learned to love Microsoft's Windows XP and no, I will not upgrade, never, not ever, do you hear me?

The iconic view from from Sammy's Point

I don't know if you local paper has a buzz word that it uses over and over despite the writer not having a clue what the word means. With the local rag here that word is 'iconic'. So every old building becomes iconic, bridges become iconic, fried mashed potato patties become iconic, the very snot from kid's noses is a runny green iconic splurge. So, in the manner of the iconic Hull Daily Mail, we have here on the left in the background the iconic Humber Bridge, moving across Hull's iconic water front, the soon-to-be iconic C4DI building, the obviously iconic Holy Trinity, the newly iconic Millennium Bridge and the gloriously iconic Tidal Barrier. I'm standing in front of the iconic Deep and I realise I forgot to mention the iconic River Hull and iconic Humber with attendant iconic mud. Those clouds passing by, yup, part of the iconic Hull sky ...

Old dog, newish tricks

Ah we all shall be saved from wet feet and damp houses as the announcement is made for a £45 million plan to improve the river Hull's flood defenses. But do note the plan has been agreed; not the £45 million! If I prattle on about flooding a lot then well it's the thing that hangs over this area like some wet sword of old what's his name. Most of the Hull valley and certainly all of the city of Hull itself is below sea-level at high tide. Anyhow one of the proposals is to use the tidal barrier more often as a sluice gate to stop the Humber going upstream during heavy rain as opposed to its current use only during very high tides on the Humber. Seems they've already tried it out and it works surprisingly well. So if they get the go ahead and that means amending legislation then the old girl will be in action maybe two or three more times every year. If that doesn't work then proper sluice gates at a cost of £16 million could be built. And if all that looks like a lot of money then think on that it's estimated a good flood of the Hull river basin could do £3.4 billion damage and make my feet wet.

The blue bottle

In the increasingly ridiculous local paper today I read that Hull is better than Paris. Et bien, à chacun son goût! But there are similarities for, on our delightful rive droite, close by the tidal barrier there's a space with seating where les philosophes meet to admire the view and drink cheap, synthetic, industrial strength cider from a big blue bottle. Did someone not say delusion is the first of all pleasures?

Short term view

The recent demolition of Wellington House and the clearances made for the new C4DI buildings have made a little space for a this view of the tidal barrier and the Millennium footbridge. Enjoy it (or not) while you can for new buildings will sprout up soon to block out this vista. The security fence around the site has images of what is planned, something new and definitely different.

Know your limitations

This weekend was the Open Heritage Days, when various old buildings and some not so old are open for us public to come in and have a good gawp. Previous years I've either forgotten about or missed it but this year I was in town. Now for some reason I found myself in Holy Trinity Church waiting to go up the tower. I somehow had forgotten my hinky knee and my lifelong fear of heights. So anyway I managed to climb up the medieval spiral staircase and get up on to the roof and forced myself to take a few pictures without completely losing the plot. The further ascent up to the actual top of the tower was, I decided, going too far. Yeah I know, I'm a cowardly wuss. 

Queen Street

Tidal barrier and the Deep

Looking north

No, I ain't going up there, thank you.

Sammy's Point

The bit of land on the east side of the junction of the river Hull and the Humber, where the Deep is now squatting, was once a large ship yard run by one Martin Samuelson. In the 1850's and 60's about one hundred steam vessels were made here by Martin Samuelson and Co before they sold out to another company and moved onto other business. Samuelson's name however became attached to this spit of land and Sammy's Point it remains.

I came across this oil painting of the shipyard, painted from the other side of the river, on the BBC's site where it is wrongly named (nobody's perfect).

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Expensive Toy

You'll no doubt be familiar with Hull new £7 million award winning toy. I know some call it a bridge but basically it's a toy that the Council plays with every Saturday at 11am and 3pm and on Sundays at 12.45pm. Here's a video of them playing (the sound track is somewhat odd). I'm sure that it's a truly unique experience ....

Now the bridge swings to allow shipping to go along the river but the river is silting up and there are at present no plans to dredge it so sooner or later no shipping will go up or down this river; indeed the river itself may choose to go somewhere else (and who would blame it?). There's supposed to be a cafe/shop on the bridge but no-one daft enough has been found to take up the tenancy. The windows give good reflections of Hull's flood barrier.

I'm told it looks pretty at night.

This Weekend's Reflections are here.

Hull Tidal Barrier

I'm posting this on Tuesday because Monday didn't happen. Tuesday isn't looking to be much of a day either ...

Deep Muddy One

The river Hull when it enters the Humber is a completely different beast to the crystal clear chalk stream that rises out of the Wolds. I guess those old Scandinavians and Celts were both right.

Here's the tidal surge barrier's reflection in that deep muddy river Hull.

Tidal Barrier, Hull

The Tidal Barrier has recently been overhauled and improved so we should be safe from destruction by flood at least for the next couple of decades.

The Deep

Situated at the mouth of the River Hull, the Deep is an iconic building housing a world important aquarium. It calls itself a submarium. The building was designed by Sir Terry Farrell so you know who to blame. You can find out more here. Lots of people have been to see the little fishes go round and round. I guess the fishes would rather be somewhere else.

The odd looking thing in the background of the second photo is the Hull tidal surge barrier which has been keeping the city dry for a couple of decades.