Teacup: storms in

 

Back in February this year, before the world went mad, someone took offence to the bells of St Nicholas Chapel. Seemed bell ringers had moved there to practice while St Margaret's was being repaired or some such story making too much campanological disturbance ... They only went and sprayed what you see here, and yes, it was still there in October (now slow yew down ...). I don't know if they caught the culprit but I did come across another story about poor old St Nick and his bells. Someone was irate that the bells no longer chimed the correct time, this guy liked the bells, for a change, indeed he had done away with clocks and watches and relied on the chapel to tell the time and was not too impressed with only ten chimes at midnight ... the Council, I read, were looking into it having only just found that they were responsible, I quote "... regarding that law, you learn something new every day!” You do indeed.

The west door, St Nicholas, King's Lynn

From Historic England "The elaborately carved door surround comprises a pointed-arch terminating in figurative head corbels, and containing two cusped door openings separated by a Y-tracery trumeau (mirroring the arrangement of the window tracery above), and two early-C15 doors (restored in 2012)". Now having read that you'll no doubt want to see the window tracery  ...

 

Such a fancy ornamented doorway with heraldic shields and beasts was clearly the main entrance at one time but not now, now you go in via porch way on the southern side... and I suppose you'll want to see the figurative head corbels or at least one of them; t'other is just a mess of eroded stone.

... to round off the day how about a pair of angels?

this one could do with a little restoration.

I can't let you go without posting this handsome chap; Old Nick himself creeping out of the stonework.

Figurative Heads, King's Lynn

On our way home from town we wandered around St Nicholas chapel which I've shown many times. This time we walked around the north side which for some reason we'd not visited. There'll be a few posts about this for the next couple of days so if 14^th century English church architecture is not your cup of tea you have been warned.

The people who detail listed buildings, Historic England, say the following about this doorway, "The north aisle has two late-C14 doorways: that in the second bay having a pointed arch, and carved figurative heads to the corbels of the hood moulding...", concise, dull but accurate and there's not really a lot more to say so I'll quit while I'm ahead.

The Vestibule

You, as a person of importance, would not tarry long in the basement of this keep. Instead you'd be shown upstairs to the reception or vestibule. An informative little sign tells us that this would originally have been a draughty place with no glass just wooden shutters. The 16th century saw mullions and glazing being added and also the main doorway into the great chamber converted into a fireplace which strikes me as an odd thing to do but then folks these days are converting their front gardens into car parks so maybe it was just a passing fancy ...

The tiles above the fireplace are a 19th century addition.

This little door became the main entrance into the Great Chamber ...

Red

This month's red theme continues with this company's door on Tower Street.

Mere Portals

Today I post a collection portals that would otherwise just hang around on my computer. Starting with the rare Baroque barley-twist columns of Clifton House on Queen Street. Bits of this enormous house date from the 13th century.

This too is on Queen Street. There's a Devil's Alley somewhere in these parts, that I must go to see at some point.

This is the Burkitt Homes on Queen Street as well. They look pretty old but but they're just old-fashioned from 1909; fit in well with the surrounding ancient stuff.

Ancient doorway also on Queen Street.

This is opposite St Margaret's, I wonder if the floor matches the window.

Although engraved in stone this is no longer Lloyds Bank but rather the TSB. This is neither the time nor the place to explain how the change came about... It's on good old Tuesday Market and why I didn't post it  back when I showed everything else about Tuesday Market I don't know.

And last and for no other reason than I like it, here's the Customs House doorway by the Purfleet.

Trinity Market

The indoor market has had a large loss of customers and was a pretty depressing empty place. So it is having a rebrand with new designed stalls and new signage but in the end its just a market and if folk don't come then it'll be a closed market.

Bridlington Bayle's back door

Being too lazy to step back a bit in order to get the whole gateway in view I thought I'd just take half a dozen pictures and stitch them together with the rather skewed result you see. The bayle, as I mentioned ages ago, is the former gatehouse to Bridlington Priory. This is the back door, as it were, and it should look a bit like this.

TRIP, TRAP! TRIP, TRAP! TRIP, TRAP! ...

I pondered why there might be a sliding door all secured and what have you underneath Myton Bridge. Then the answer came to me; it's obvious when you think about it. This is the home of the famous Hull Troll ("fol-de-rol" ) so be careful or he'll eat you up for supper.

The weekend in black and white is here.

There was a crooked man ...

There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile,

He found a crooked sixpence against a crooked stile;

He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

 

 

The Lighted Doorway

I took this back in December and somehow forgot about it. This is the Venn building at the University, in daylight it looks like this.

2 High Sttreet

I don't why it has two doors maybe the first wasn't wide enough. Anyhow not so very long ago this place looked like this; so it's scrubbed up nicely hasn't it.

Samman House

The last in an impromptu triplet of doorways is this on Bowlalley Lane complete with bin bags. The story of the rise (if that's the right word) of Henry Samman from Oxfordshire born cabin boy to Hull shipping magnate, owner of the Deddington Steamship Company, mayor of Beverley and eventual baronet can be read here should you want a good read. Hull's chamber of commerce and shipping no longer resides here and indeed the whole building was recently (2013) refurbished and converted into "eight unique high specification apartments" which I suppose explains the trash. A recent addition, well I've only just noticed it, is the little picture of what I believe is the SS Elf in company colours.

Ocean Chambers. Lowgate

Well the doorway was open so I did not resist the temptation to have a sneaky peak inside. This is Ocean Chambers on Lowgate built in 1900 in what is called a baroque revival style. It has some pretty fancy detailing including this cartouche with attending dolphins. I'm assuming from the name that it had some maritime/shipping connection originally, now it's the offices of a law firm.

John, Luke, Mark and Matthew

Somehow this massive 18^th century carved oak door survived the ravages of the Gilbert Scott's 'restoration' of Beverley Minster. The door depicts from right to left the four evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John with their respective symbols. A family of craftsmen by the name of Thornton is responsible for this door and the baptismal font cover which I'll show some time soon. The same Thorntons also saved the North transept from collapsing.

In reality the door is a very dark brown  but my camera failed me (or I failed it) and underexposed it; so to make an anywhere decent image I've had to play around ending up with this black and white image, it's a bit clearer if you click on it for the bigger version. Below shows the impressive door surround (they did like their statues back then) and the base of the West window which I'll show tomorrow.

The Weekend in Black and White is here.