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?

Five houses on Mayfair

I may have mentioned that Hull's Beverley Road had at one time pretensions to posh; there's a Harley Street, Park Lane, Fitzroy Street (with allusions to Fitzrovia) and here's good old Mayfair. At one time these were respectable Victorian town houses for the rising middle classes complete with garrets for the domestic serving staff. Now, as you can see, no-one calls them home. I recall that in Monopoly™, Mayfair goes for £400 with houses £50 a go; that seems about the right price for this little lot.

The Local Rag

These are the offices of the Hull Daily Mail, a sprawling block at Blundell's Corner, the junction of Beverley Road and Spring Bank, that used to house a much bigger operation than at present. The paper is no longer printed here, that being done somewhere outside of Hull and then the papers trucked back for sale in the city. Don't ask how much it costs, I haven't bought a copy since Margaret Thatcher resigned! It claims a readership of 170,000 and is the largest regional newspaper in Yorkshire.

Now it has to be said that though it is called a newspaper much of what is reported by this institution is far from being new or even newsworthy. It is often wrong on facts, its standards of grammar are quite lamentable, it is not above copying stories from other sources without attribution. (I know plagiarism is the basis of all culture but when I found a senior HDM employee Tweeting my photo as if he owned the image it was a bit too much too far! Still waiting for some sort of apology for that.) Its reporters, if we may call them that, seem to have scant local knowledge and often misname places and streets. I could go on but you get the gist.

You can check out its web site here, but be warned, I'm told that the mobile site is a jumble of popup adverts that make it unusable, it often gives request timeouts and is generally poor. The only good thing on the site is the comments from readers which run the full gamut of sceptical denial of just about everything to rallying positively behind everything Hullish. I should just add here that I do not read the sports bits so that might be quite superb but somehow I doubt it.

Now having said all that, it came as no little surprise to hear that HDM has won awards for being the best regional newspaper. The judges said it was "delivering a newspaper completely in tune with the communities it served"; well quite! Makes you wonder how bad the other papers are.

Underperforming

“Literacy is a fundamental human right and the foundation for lifelong learning. It is fully essential to social and human development in its ability to transform lives.”

... so says  a statement from UNESCO and it's pretty hard to disagree. So, let us say that in the City of Culture, the place where hundreds of thousands if not millions (if you swallow the Kool Aid stats) came to visit and gawp in amazement at the torch lit parades, the fancy dress parades, the installation of  a wind turbine blade, the simply ridiculous Turner Prize, the art-and-fart, here-today-and-pissed-off-tomorrow, paid-for-by-the-taxpayer steaming garbage that oozed through the newly paved streets of this town ... well, in this benighted place far too many adults (42% in some wards) can barely read or write above the level of an eight year old and nearly 40% of their children leave primary schools not able to read properly. To put this into some sort of historical context back in the early 19^th century it was reckoned nearly two thirds of working men could read after a fashion though fewer could write (teaching writing was frowned upon as working folk might start writing their own stories and tales of woe and so on and that most definitely would not do). In parts of this town there seems to have been little progress in two centuries... 

There's no glamour in functional illiteracy, no awards for being unable to write, no visitors from Primrose Hill and Hampstead, no sponsored rainbow coloured celebration in the heart of town, it is most definitely not liberating  ... just a daily struggle to get by as  the better informed, better paid world races on ahead.

You might think that libraries like the one above on Beverley Road could help; it is, after all, right in the heart of one of the most deprived areas in the town ... but some time back (10 or 15 years) this place (along with several others) was closed. "Underperforming" was the accounting term used. It became part of a brand new expensive school, called  "Endeavour". That school lasted but a few years and is no more, it too "underperformed" ... along with all the other underperfoming schools in the town.

So the Council's plan to deal with adult under education as I understood it was to expand the Central library, bring in Learning Zones ... with fewer books and more computers and that essential aid to learning, a modern ambience (think how well Oxbridge would do with a modern ambience!). The result is that Hull is not the worst place in the country for literacy problems; no, no ... it's just the eleventh worst place.

The Northern Library, as it was known, was built in 1895 to the standard pattern of public libraries back in the day. It is now seems to be a Grade 2 listed empty place that is clearly no longer underperforming ...

Trafalgar Street Church

Oh those Victorians! How they did like their churches, scattering them around the town with nary a thought to what the future would bring, like the market in Christianity collapsing post 1914-18. So now we have to deal with what might called post-Christian blight. This situation is made worse by a sentimental attachment to all things 'old' even if 'old' is only a hundred years and also conservation laws that defy stylistic and economic reason. Here's Trafalgar Street church on Beverley Road, built by the Baptists in 1906 in a mock Gothic brick flint-clad style (no doubt the builders' enthusiasm or funds did not run to paying out for stone) that you either love or detest (personally, it's as ugly a prayer factory as I've seen for quite some time). It was abandoned by them in 2002 then used by an even smaller sect for a while; it has been standing empty for nearly a decade. The rear church hall is now apartments, so far so good; but what on earth to you do with an empty church? Well they tried selling it for £160,000 but had to settle for a mere £80,000. That was over a year ago and still it sits there behind security fencing. I'm told it has been weatherproofed.  

Well now it seems to be a law that where ever there's an 'old' building falling into disrepair because there is no use for it there springs up a 'support' group to 'save' it and this is no exception. They want National Lottery money as well as donations for their rescue scheme. And their plan for this former house of God? A community gym! Because you must treat your body as a temple I suppose.

Did I mention it's a Grade 2 listed building in a conservation area? No? But then you'd probably guessed that's why it hasn't been knocked down a long time ago. More on this conservation nonsense tomorrow.

Trafalgar Street

There's nothing much about Trafalgar Street which runs for no particular reason off Beverley Road. There's a flint faced church long empty and for sale, fenced off and growing buddleia, but with some nice gargoyles. And there's a fading memorial to a senseless murder of a father of two on New Year's Day three years ago. And that's about it really.

Weeping Window

Here on Beverley Road the latest installation exposes the  close dependency between the various layers in the culture business each clinging on to the coat tails of the next one up and how rubbish flows from the top to the bottom to be transformed into a neat little heap of acceptable art. The piece has had a highly favourable reception in the press and TV. The locals simply can't get enough of this and queue up to take their selfies in front of the gushing red flow of culture. It's only here until May before it goes off to tour the country so get your skates on.

Propping up the facade

Oh dear the scaffolding has gone up on the recently fire-damaged Lambert Street Chapel. The side walls have been knocked down by half and I hear the rear wall will have to come down too. Scaffolding means the facade might be saved, it could also mean a long, long wait. On Beverley Road scaffolding has been up on one building since 2011 . Hopefully the facade can be incorporated into whatever new building arises in much the same way as the old Cooperative Institutes facade which stood for decades in splendid isolation was eventually incorporated into a new apartment block on Kingston Square.

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Propping up the bank

This former bank on the corner of Pendrill Street and Beverley Road has been empty for years. It's been propped up even longer ever since a bomb landed next door during that little local difficulty we had with our German friends some time back. For those who like a sense of geographical completeness this is opposite the Aldi store I posted last week.

Lairgate

Looks peaceful and quiet in this picture but in reality Lairgate is one of the busiest streets in this medieval town. It forms part of the main route from the Humber Bridge in the south to Driffield in the north, the A164. Heavy traffic winds and grinds its way through the town, through narrow streets, such as Hengate, that are plainly not up to the task. So Beverley is to get a relief road, a southern by-pass which will cut across the green belt between Cottingham and Beverley. It will, of course, only be a matter of time before Beverley expands outwards to this pass-by, but that's what passes for progress these days and if people want to build their homes on a flood plain who is to stop them?

Now with less

This picture, taken from the bus on my way home, shows a little piece of 20th century history. The building on the right is the remains of the National Picture Theatre on Beverley Road. It was destroyed in an air raid on the night of the 17^th March 1941 during a showing of The Great Dictator. One hundred and fifty people sheltering in the foyer escaped with their lives. Since that day the ruins have just been left and now it is the last blitz damaged civilian building in the country.

So what to do with the site? Well there were plans to turn it into restaurants and flats but the great bankster driven recession has put paid to that. There's now a plan to turn it into a ‘tribute to the home front’ whatever that means. As far as I know they are still seeking funding for this so it may be another seventy years before anything happens.

Now I've only ever passed the front of this ruin and was unaware of what lies behind until I came across this little web page while researching this post. All I can say is what a mess!

As for the building on the left that was a pub called the Swan. I only ever went in there once many, many years ago. I recall it was full of big tall Kerry men drinking a strange black liquid and singing Country & Western songs. I did not stay long.

I'm not driving

Rolled up in town late on Friday afternoon about 4pm but could tell something was up as the bus diverted and left us to get off on a side street. The reason was obvious; each street in town was filled with traffic going absolutely nowhere at all. I wonder if you ever played that game as a child where you had to move from place to place without touching the ground? We called it Pirates, you might have called it something else. Anyhow you could play Pirates all round town on the roofs of cars stretching from the river to Beverley Road and all other points west and east. And the reason so many hundreds of vehicles decided to use the centre of town ... someone decided to play with the Myton Bridge and oops, oh dear ... it broke down. Hmmm ...

The picture was taken last year on Spring Bank, another notorious bottle neck. It's a stretch of about one thousand yards and my personal record for rush hour slowness on here is twenty five minutes; that's a little over 1 mile per hour! Even I can walk quicker than that.

Butchery

This old butcher's sign has been revealed on Beverley Road, near to Cave Street. I can't remember a butcher's ever being there, that's going back thirty years. The shop is shuttered and closed along with neighbouring shops all benefiting from the economic butchery that is the government's austerity policy. Cuts here, chops there, free money for all our banker friends, oh well done old boy!

Pictures by Margot K Juby, because she had the camera and I didn't.

Aftermath

A fire in a house last Friday morning resulted in an explosion which blew out the front windows of this house on Beverley Road. A man later died of his injuries and two firemen were also injured. Despite appearances the house is said to be structurally sound as are the neighbouring properties.

Beverley Road Public Baths

A fine example of Edwardian civic pride on display here. Not one but two domes all copper; there's posh. Opened in 1905 the baths served two purposes, recreational and hygenic. Many of the surrounding houses lacked bathrooms and so residents used the excellent slipper baths which were still in use in the 1980s; I know, I used to use them and very nice they were too! The swimming pool was used at one time for the preservation of an ancient wooden boat that was found on the shores of the Humber, there a link here. A campaign to save the baths from demolition in the 1990s was successful and they were renovated and are now in constant use; the council have a page here. There's a bit more about the building here.

Smithy's

Next door to the Bull on Beverley Road this supplier of deep fried battered savoury mashed potato  is apparently the Best in Hull and that, I suppose, is something to be. Hullophiles often claim Hull to be the home of this greasy carbohydrate rich delicacy but I can tell you patties were on sale in my home town Hartlepool and I suspect many other places have a similar concoction.  Pattie and chips is apparently a thing in these parts; the poor man's fish and chips ... I had them as a kid and quite honestly they're nowt special.

Old Post Office

I guess when they closed the post office on Westwood Road in Beverley they forgot to take the sign down (they may need planning permission, it's that sort of area). So there it stays gently fading along with the memory of when the Royal Mail used to run a half decent service. Westwood Road, by the by, was once declared to have the most expensive houses in East Yorkshire; this is the cheaper end.

Westwood Road

I mentioned in passing many months ago that Westwood Road, Beverley had the most expensive houses in this area. Personally I can't see the attraction of these Victorian terraced mansions nor even the grand villas opposite (that's not to say I wouldn't take one if offered). I suppose once you've made your pile you must find a suitable place to flaunt it.

The South Gate, King's Lynn

I suppose in a rational ordered world this vestige of medieval urban protection would have been cleared away and become nothing but an entry in obscure historical chronicles. A wee sign informs us that this was put up in the early 15th century clearly to bottleneck the flow of carts and horses causing tailbacks over the river Nar and along Friars Street as toll charges were levied and collected on traffic. The sign mentions that the gatekeeper was also "keeper of the muckhills" but thankfully does not elaborate on what that might mean ... The small doors on either side show where pedestrians had had enough and were allowed through. Later on London Road was developed and was as you see it is twice as wide as the gate. So there it stands covering half a road serving no useful purpose other than being a delight to the eye, an oddity in the blandness of modern life.

The gate is open to visitors during the warmer months but not on a chilly  Sunday afternoon in February.

The stone clad frontage is to impress visitors, it's really a brick building similar to the North Bar in Beverley.

The South Gate was the site of the town's gallows where poor unfortunates were hanged if they weren't being roasted in Tuesday Market... Margot suggested these orbs might be the restless souls of the condemned hovering about the place, I think it's just a stinky picture ...

Here's the wee sign I mentioned earlier.

The building is, of course, Grade 1 listed. Here's more by folk who know what they are talking about.

Who put the monkey in the monkey puzzle tree?

 

 This is a fine young specimen of  Araucaria araucana on Westwood Road, Beverley, I hope the people who live in this house realise that it will grow to 40m/130ft and live for 1000 years. To quote Wikipedia: "The origin of the popular English name Monkey-puzzle derives from its early cultivation in Britain in about 1850, when the species was still very rare in gardens and not widely known. The proud owner of a young specimen at Pencarrow garden near Bodmin in Cornwall was showing it to a group of friends, and one made the remark "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that"; as the species had no existing popular name, first 'monkey-puzzler', then 'monkey-puzzle' stuck."

I think I prefer the French  "désespoir des singes" or "monkeys' despair".

It's said by some that the devil sits in this tree (clearly he's not a monkey) and so you have to be quiet when passing these trees lest you attract the old Nick's attention and he gives you bad luck. You have been warned.