Liddell Street: then and now

Close to the burnt out school I showed the other day is a patch of grass with a few trees and bushes growing on it. They can't build houses on this land on account of the Cottingham Drain running right underneath it. Twenty or so years ago when I used to live in these parts the place was a scruffy dumping ground for fly-tippers and you'd see the occasional wino making his peace with the world. There was a strange bridge that didn't cross anything since the drain had been culverted decades earlier. There'd be weird tyre tracks where joy riders had obviously been having fun. Oh and every November fifth there'd be an almighty bonfire, often two or three leaving scorch marks that didn't really heal 'til the next November. Anyhow now it's become a play area with goalposts for football (that's posh!) and so on and proper seats for the winos and druggies so they don't get their trousers dirty .... and tolerated graffiti. The strange bridge has finally gone. The posts you can see are to stop twockers using the place as a short cut (spoilsports). Oh and the fly-tipping is still a local hazard.

Demolition beasts

The old central fire station, or rather the back portion of it, is no more thanks to the quick work of these magnificent  machines. The front bit which I posted a few days ago is going to stay as it's protected. There's other work going on with the next door New Theatre which I'll show some other time.

The weekend in black and white is here.

Just show him the door ...

Yesterday we had an election for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner for the Humberside Police force. The incumbent, a man who had overseen the force's decline to being the worst in the country was standing again with the slogan of "Let me finish the job!". Chutzpah! I've just heard he's lost.

There were three other candidates (I almost wrote condidates) but none of them bothered to let anyone know what they stood for so I couldn't tell you about them. Me, I voted for ACAB!

Corner House

Someone with time on their hands and a lot of paint has neatly decorated the Cornerhouse on the corner (geddit?) of Percy Street and Freetown Way. The lower half reminds me of the modern craze for adult colouring in books, I suppose it's harmless fun.  Cornerhouse is a place for youngsters to get (free) advice on sex and relationships and so on. I don't know where the oldies have to go for such things, I suppose we just have to make it up as we go along ...

Going to the inevitable

If you have a slightly better memory than me you may faintly recall a post about the old Blundell Street school and its predicament, (here it is). It's had its share of vandalism over the years. The Council is at loggerheads with the owner over a new development, there had been talk of compulsory purchase and well, it's all so sadly familiar. So it was really no great surprise to wake up on Sunday morning to news that this place had been ravaged by a huge fire, no surprise at all; what took them so long?. 

There's some neat drone footage from Octovision Media.:

Blundell School Fire 30/4/16 from Octovision Media on Vimeo.

Typical

Nothing special about today's offering. A typical Hull side street, Grafton Street if you must know, with its typical array of terraced housing, typical array of bins on the pavement (they're an obstruction but no-one gives a toss, which is also typical) and its typical white van parked on a double yellow (but really it's on the pavement so that doesn't count).

Today is a bank holiday and the forecast is cloudy with some rain ... typical.

Hooray, hooray, It's the first of May ...

Cats rely a lot on smelling things out, so I'm told. You've met Bruiser before, here he's pretending to be the great hunter stalking his prey, but it's just another bowl of his favourite slightly rank roast chicken.

City Daily Photo theme for the first of May is 'smell'. Go point your nostrils at what others have done here.