White Hart Blues

A sad little note in the window of the White Hart on Alfred Gelder Street informs the world that it is closed "due to the current economic climate". Optimistically it expects to reopen in the Spring. We shall see. Quite a few pubs have closed in recent years only to "reopen" as apartments.

The Bank

I'm guessing this particular bank on Holderness Road didn't suffer too much in the recent financial crises. This old Hull Savings Bank despite no longer taking deposits seems to have no liquidity problems.

Dockside buildings

As the evening descends on the old dockside buildings the place looks almost attractive.

The Weekend in Black and White is upon us again, here.

And Weekend Reflections is here.

Wellington Boot

Just passed this pub on Russell Street and noticed the interesting sign. I once entered this pub more than thirty years ago and left pretty pronto as the place stank like an open latrine. I can only hope it has improved since then. A local historian has written a piece about this place and you can read it here.

The Eagle Has Flown

Thirty or more years ago I once spent two evenings in this pub. The second visit was to confirm the sheer dismal horror of the first. Even after this length of time I shudder at the thought of the back room of the Eagle, as it then was, a place akin to a waiting room to Hell. Maybe my memory exaggerates the Dickensian squalor and the pallor and hopeless despairing looks of the two or three other silent drinkers but I think not. The years passed and the Eagle became the Tap and Spile (I still don't know what a spile is and don't know anyone who does) and then, by sheer laziness, the Tap. I never went back. Passing the place the other day I saw that instead of selling beer someone was trying to flog furniture, I hurried on by ....

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be

Regular visitors might recognise this as the pub formerly known as the Fishbowl, Hockney's and also Aussie Beach. Seems it was also once called Nostalgia, I missed that. Anyhow it's being disemboweled with a view to who knows what.

Peeling Pink Paint

At the corner of Roper Street and Waterhouse Lane stands the Music Man or what's left of it. Old maps show this as the Victoria Tavern. I was looking for any interesting facts or features about this place but could find only one comment which mentioned warm beer in cans, indescribable toilets and walls covered in a blue fungal growth! There's a school of thought that if you can't think of anything nice to say then you should say nothing ....

City Daily Photo are having their monthly do with a family friendly 'pink' theme here.

Capital P

At the corner of Princes Avenue and Spring Bank the newly painted and recently relaunched Pearsons pub is all that it appears to be. A late 1990's attempt at the 1870's Victorian look that fails miserably; so that what was an attempt to blend in becomes quite an eyesore. Better to have built something modern than this throwback. The pub originally opened as the Old Zoological which was also a bit cheeky considering the original Zoological built in about 1840/50 (and a right old dive if ever there was one) was demolished several years before this newcomer.

The Weekend in Black and White begins here.

The Station, Stepney

Across the road from yesterday's post stands this pub. Now regular readers will note straight away the mock Tudor facade common to many pubs and probably applied in the 1920's or 30's. The pub presumably dates back to the 1850's  or 60's when the railway arrived. The little passageway to the left of the building has the grand name of  Kottingham Avenue. No-one is quite sure why it is spelt with a K nor indeed why it changed to this from Prague Terrace which it used go by.

Stepney, it turns out (OK it was news to me), was once a small village quite separate from the city of Hull. The local primary school had a rather neat little history prepared which you can read here, if such things interest you. 

Lion and Key

The Lion and Key first opened in in 1817 at the corner of Scale Lane and High Street. Until a few years ago however it was trading under the name of Durty Nelly's (sic). Not surprisingly that enterprise failed (what were they thinking of?) and the pub was bought up and given its original name back and is doing well unlike a lot of pubs not just in Hull but all across the country where twelve pubs are closing every week! The opening of the new swing bridge will no doubt pull in some passing trade.

The Lair

Installed in what was once a waiting room for emigrants who wanted to make a dream come true in another land is the Tigers Lair, a place for supporter's of the local football club who, I suppose, also want to make their dreams come true. Well, they're playing with the big boys next season we'll see what comes of dreaming.

Buffet car

So what do you do with two old rail carriages and an archway on Beverley Road? Obviously you turn them into a cafe bar, what else?

The Eagle, Coltman Street and a Cautionary Tale

There has been a pub called the Eagle on or around this site since 1840 [ 1 ]. Now, along with many other pubs, it's closed and up for sale and looking a bit forlorn. It stands on the corner of Anlaby Road and Coltman Street. Now Coltman Street and thereabouts have long had a well deserved reputation for criminality and even murder. A particularly brutal one in the early nineties when a man was shot dead on his doorstep is still controversial. A favourite of mine, if that is the word to use about these things, happened in the early 80's. A man strangled his wife and left her body in the bedroom over Winter, with the windows wide open of course, so the smell would dissipate. The victim in this case was described as being odd because she was quiet ("she wouldn't gossip") and read books, and thus was clearly asking for trouble! The killer was convicted of manslaughter the following Summer, spent a few months in prison and was out before the year was over, no doubt to have a drink in this very pub. That's 1980's by the way not 1880's.

.

I hear there are attempts to do up the street and bring it back to its former glory. I'm not so sure that's such a good idea. 

Entrepôt

Here's another post of the Minerva Hotel. Built in the 1850's it served as the offices of one Richard Cortis an emigrant agent who was in the business of transporting hundreds of thousands mainly from Scandinavia through Hull and on to Liverpool and from there America. On arrival at Hull many ships would berth at the Steam Packet Wharf (below) adjacent to the Minerva. The male passengers were allowed to disembark and enjoy the pleasures of the town until evening when they must be back on board, women and children were kept on board until forward transport could be arranged.

Norway's declaration of a constitution on this day in 1814 may have raised nationalist passions but did nothing to stem the flow of its people to find a better life elsewhere. The figures are really quite alarming, from a population of  then around 2 million in one year alone, 1884, 28,804 people left. A million or so left in the century up to 1914. Norway's loss was Hull's gain, or rather the shipping company Wilson Line's gain. 

Now, of course, it's all changed and Norway is a rich and prosperous place with a high standard of living. Hull however has not fared so well, perhaps I should emigrate. Go East, old man!

Today's rather rambling post is part of City Daily Photo's Norway Constitution Day theme. 

Well Spotted

Those of a certain age will understand if I say this is the very biggest spotty dog you ever did see.... OK it's a pub on Inglemire Lane.

A little local difficulty

Just across the road from 5^th Avenue is the Endyke pub. Another 1920/30's mock Tudor building. Just another neighbourhood pub, you might think, with its usual comings and goings and the odd not very serious disturbance. Well that is until one night in February last year when a man who had been asked to leave because he wouldn't put out his cigarette returned with a chainsaw and ran amok in the pub! Some very brave customers managed to chase him out by throwing chairs at him and he was eventually caught but not before one person was seriously injured. 

Here's a not very clear video of the events.

In the red

Ah well, I guess it couldn't last. Here's the pub formerly known as the Fishbowl, Hockney's and also Aussie Beach all boarded up and for sale once again. Seems it failed to attract the students despite having staff dress up as goldfish during the first few days of term last year. Can't imagine why a gimmick like that didn't work. Are students becoming more discerning?

Anyway if you've got a quarter of a million sterling going spare and you fancy trying your hand in the licensed trade well  you can see who to contact in this photo. Be warned history has a nasty habit of repeating itself usually as farce.

The Yard

Tucked away on Vicar Lane at the back of King's Buildings I came across what appears to be a pub or a club called the Yard though I can find practically nothing about it on the web. I'm guessing it gets its name from the Grammar School Yard which is just behind the wall on the left or maybe it comes from being a back yard. Anyhow I just liked the imposing gateway which completely dominates the narrow lane.

Ye Olde Corn Exchange

Nothing about the name of this pub is quite what it seems. In the good old days of 1788 it was called the "Excise Coffee House". It only became "Ye Olde Corn Exchange" in the early 1800's; an early example of trading on a false past no doubt. (The real old corn exchange was on High Street; one day I'll get a picture of that.) It stands on the north side of Holy Trinity church at the junction with Market Place. The weird lighting is due to reflections from an ugly 1970's office building behind me which has bronzed mirrored windows that cast a fine glow as the sun catches them.

Giving York a hug

This plaque is high up on what used to be Barclay's bank at the corner of Silver Street and Trinity House Lane. It probably goes unnoticed by the vast majority of folks. If they did notice it and were familiar with heraldic coats of arms they  might wonder why some misty eyed maid was hugging the shield of the city of York. The bank, as is the way of things these days, is now a public house named after a member of one of Hull's old banking families William Wilberforce.