Finally a plan ...

Welcome news that at last something will be done with this site that sits opposite the Deep, Hull's major tourist attraction, which must be off-putting to any visitor. This is become a centre for innovative digital companies, C4DI,  with the dry dock becoming a public amphitheatre! (see here). Yes I found it a bit difficult to come to terms with the fact that the Council agreed to this sensible and creative plan. After all there were the usual nay-sayers from the Civic Society wanting that derelict building with no roof saved as it was once a Georgian stable! (I cannot for one minute imagine that the Georgians paused and gave thought to the mediaeval hovels they knocked down to build this in the first place). When finished rumour has it 450 jobs might be created well whatever happens it's right next door to Humber Street and all that's going on down there and with plans for Castle Street to be improved it seems joined up thinking is going on at last. So the timetable is that in 18-24 months and with £14 million spent all this will be transformed. Well I can dream can't I?

Sudden Drop

This sign on the old dry dock near the mouth of the River Hull made me smile I don't know why. I posted about this dry dock some time ago when I mentioned that there were plans for a tourist attraction. Well now there are plans for something completely different but more about that in the next post.

Do you believe in Hull?

When I first saw these adverts I wondered if perhaps it was some silly campaign to drum up support for the City of Culture nonsense then I pondered the possibility that Hull was suffering from ontological insecurity? (After all Hull is no longer even in the worst 50 cities in the UK. If Hull's not crap then what is it?) Truth is neither of these was the case as it happens; this is just the latest gimmick dreamt up by the God-botherers desperate to rustle up some trade by saying Hull is a wonderful place (truly God works in a mysterious way).
Anyhow on a more serious note (am I ever frivolous?) it is reported that the Government is being urged to forget about failing towns like Hull (where I live) and Hartlepool (where I was born) and a host of others. Instead of pouring money into these places (did I miss out on this somehow?) the Government should help people to in effect abandon them or rather move to places where there is employment (the clever ones are doing this already, it's been going on for years). This help involves improving regional transport infrastructure instead of building the grand projects such as High Speed Rail.  In a thought provoking article that has got the Hull-lovers snarling and spitting obscenities The Economist magazine states some rather brutal opinions and some equally forthright solutions to perceived problems of high unemployment, poor education and a dependency on benefits. The Economist, of course, does not have to stand for election so it is free to posit politically suicidal solutions. I did, however, take to the idea that these empty cities would become like the Cotswolds in a few hundred years time because of the people fleeing them, now there's something to believe in.

Morning Glory

Well actually mid-afternooon glory. This little delight was blooming away just outside my front door yesterday afternoon enjoying the warmth of the October sunshine. Today it's turned pink and curled up as they do. Oh and the warmth has gone as well with a biting northerly wind setting in.

Poor little sods

Sometimes it's best not to think about how things got the way they are. So finding a palette of grass turfs on a patch of waste ground raises no eyebrows.

National Poetry Day

I've just found out that the first Thursday in October is National Poetry Day. And since I also just happen to have a piccy of  Laughing Boy Larkin's old place complete with slate plaque and glass fibre toad I thought the two would go nicely together. Now Larkin when he first came to this place thought Hull was "a frightful dump" "smelling of fish" but as the years rolled by and there was clearly no money left in running down the place Hull became "… a city that is in the world yet sufficiently on the edge of it to have a different resonance’. Personally it's still a dump but both Larkin and the smelly fish have gone so it's not all that bad.

Gory details

Quite possibly the remains of a peregrine falcon's dinner dumped unceremoniously outside the Crown Court earlier this year.

More detailed posts at City Daily Photo's theme page here.