Here is the eastern end of Jameson Street with the canopy of the now empty BHS store that used to shelter those waiting for buses. Where once there was a steady stream of cars, buses and people, the very arterial blood of any city, there is now yet another bland, pedestrianised desert.
When a shop stops selling stuff and the doors close and the "for sale"
signs spring up (redevelopment opportunity, of course) this is when the
cover up operation starts. In swoops the council or whoever and City of
Culture posters festoon the empty windows and doors. It all looks so
professional, they've obviously had a lot of experience in this. So the
empty BHS store is no longer a salutary lesson in the failure of modern business but has somehow become a bright blue advertisement for Culture and that is some sort of legacy I suppose.
Now I've gone on about this mosaic thing before and how there was a petition to get it some protection from any future wrecker's ball. Well it seems there yet another petition to get it Grade 2 listed. As you simply cannot have too many petitions I signed that as well; you may like to do so it's here. The mural now has a Twitter identity (@BhsMuralHull) and I read recently of a young person who had a tatoo based on the mosaic. Now that is truly a lasting legacy.
The Weekend in Black and White is here.
