A thing from the past

Trawling through some old pictures I came across this from about 2004. I'd totally forgotten about this testament to the welder's skill that used to be on Scale Lane near where the new swing bridge was (eventually) built. I don't know what it was, who made it or where it went. Somebody will know, won't they?

Fracture lines

It's really not fair, some might say, to juxtapose a broken window with Orchard Park. Orchard Park, the very name conjures up a rural idyll, a place of bucolic bliss. But in reality Orchard Park is home to packs of feral, anti-social, uneducated, despicable untermensch who roam around destroying any last vestige of civilisation...and that's just the children.

Oh I know other cities have far worse places and OP is not even the worst place in Hull but when they witter on about 'City of Culture this' and 'City of Culture that' just bear in mind how utterly irrelevant it all is to Orchard Park and the kindred hell holes that surround this place.

Margot took this picture while we waited for a bus to leafy Cottingham, where the snobs live, if we are to believe some Hull Councillors.

The weekend in black and white is here.

#Shakespeare400

In England, on this St George's Day, down the leafy lanes of Cottingham it  is heartening to find the Bard's innovative use of language is still finding a voice among the oppressed youth. Innit Blud! (as they often say in these parts)

A pair of cranes

A pair of cranes has taken up residence behind the University's business studies building this Summer as yet more building work gets under way. Somehow the University has put together £25 million or so to build a new bio-medical facility complete with "a mock hospital ward, operating theatre, intensive care facilities and a large lecture theatre". Where will it all end? I should mention that £7 million of this has come from a donation by a very rich (I believe the term 'stinking rich' applies in this case) man who I shall not name here because, well, you can look him up if you're that bothered and he certainly doesn't need any more publicity.

Another day, another plan, another slogan

This is a slogan of the  property development company, Wykeland, eager to make a buck out of redeveloping the old Fruit Market and its surroundings. It is part of a slick marketing operation to sell the (£80 million) plans for not just a hundred or so new homes but a whole 'urban village' lifestyle whatever that may be. Well, judging by the company video, what it appears to be is people of a certain age (no older than 27, I'd guess) giggling, drinking coffee, giggling, drinking more coffee, giggling more  (presumably all that coffee sets off a giggle reflex) and so on as they live, work and play and their money pours into the coffers of Wykeland.

The video, so I'm informed, was shot in Shoreditch and Southwark in London as well as in Hull. Those places may well be able to support an 'urban village' lifestyle being situated in the middle of one of the greatest and richest urban populations in the world. The old Fruit Market is surrounded by water on three sides and the hell that is Castle Street on the other and is a crusty pimple on the bottom of one of the poorest cities in Britain. It will be interesting to see if the project gets off the ground. 

On a lighter note, if you are into meaningless slogans such as the one above, check out the mind blowing one below. Well D'oh!

 

Ceci n'est pas un tardis

OK I don't know why I haven't shown this antique telephone booth before. It sits in the indoor market and serves no purpose other than ornamentation. I think I can remember it working many years ago as a phone box but that may be one of those false memories you read about in the papers. Something about a row when it was proposed to do away it also surfaces now I come to think about it. There's really not a lot you can say about an old empty phone box that doesn't even do time travel any more ...

Central Fire Station

The Central Fire Station on Worship Street is, like the Central Police Station on Queen's Gardens, no longer in use having been replaced by a new place on Clough Road. I'm posting these because pretty soon the place will be no more. It's being demolished to make way for an extension to the New Theatre and a new £10 million University Technical College. I had to look up what a UTC was; as far as I can make out it's a type of grammar or elite school for the twenty first century with business sponsorships and links the the University. The New Theatre works were going to be held up due the the Council lacking funds (that old sofa trick no longing working). Step in the Chancellor of the Exchequer, no less, with £5 million spare change to save the day. ("He's a very nice man, a very, very nice man" *tugs forelock*)

The place was originally run by Hull City Council hence the city crest.

Then it was run by the now defunct Humberside County Council but it remains a Humberside service, serving both sides of the Humber.

This faded plaque informs that the place was opened on 6th April 1927 by a Mr Crook J.P!

Finally a not very good picture of the front.