"An Eminent and Munificent Merchant...."

It is difficult to imagine the howls and hoots of derison that would greet a statue like this being put up these days. In the 1870s, with the Gothic revival underway, it seemed like a good idea. Anyway, in all his camp glory, here is Sir William de la Pole, first Lord mayor of Kingston upon Hull. W.D.Keyworth was the man to blame. There's a sycophantic inscription beneath that is too ghastly to repeat (you get a taste from the title of this post). 

This hideousness is close by the vile green Voyage statue on the riverside; I tell you this should you wish to avoid coming across either of them by accident.

The Leaning Stylite of Hull

Here as promised sometime ago is the man threatening to leap into the Humber. It's part of a pair of statues linking Hull's fishing history with Iceland; the other statue is in Vik, Iceland. There's more about all this nonsense here. I note that the Icelandic version (called For) is cast in aluminium and is untarnished; the Hull one(named Voyage) is in brass and has turned green, possibly with envy that Iceland still has a fishing industry and Hull doesn't.

Drypool Bridge

Shutters

Spring is sprung, De grass is riz ....

Clearly here's a chap who is not going to let the grass grow under his feet. The council seem to be obsessive about  grass; maybe this is one  area that could be cut back.

The new building in the background is intended to be a hotel for all you eager visitors to this town. Looks just yummy doesn't it?

Rainbow-Friargate

Whitefriargate is the scene of a colourful installation by  Hsiao-Chi Tsai & Kimiya Yoshikawa inspired by "the seaport character of Hull". It's the latest in a series of exhibits using the empty shops and spaces of the street; really it's an effort to get people to visit this end of town. There's a bit more information here.

If you do fancy visiting Hull (and who wouldn't?) then be warned that Whitefriargate is pronounced as something like "Witfregit". For more helpful advice on meeting and greeting the natives I can recommend this site.

What's in a name

I have said before that pubs really shouldn't change their names. This might now be called Original Keys but you can be sure that locals still call  it the Cross Keys. It's on Driffield's Market Place opposite a hotel whose sign is below, I'll let you guess the name.