Now don't rush into anything ...

Corporation Pier, Hull

A year and three months after it was damaged by an extraordinary high tide there appears at long last to be some movement towards a repair to Corporation Pier (or Victoria Pier if you like). Some very large beams have appeared. Maybe they've been waiting for the trees to grow.

Those who like watching paint dry might like these two previous posts here and here.

The weekend in black and white is here.

From Victoria Pier

This is the view towards the river Hull from what is now called the Victoria Pier but which used to be called the Corporation Pier and from which ferries ran across the Humber to New Holland.  I thought the gull deserved a close-up for not flying away while this idiot was lining it up for the shot.

City Daily Photo's In Focus features an interview with me covering cynicism, romanticism, Philip Larkin and other bits and bobs about photography and Hull. Though I say it myself it's far from boring. Read it here.

Old ferry pierhead

Before the Humber bridge was built ferries ran from here to New Holland on the Lincolnshire side of the Humber. In those days there was a proper Corporation Pier  but that's all long gone. The last surviving ferry, the PS Lincoln Castle, is currently being broken up in a Grimsby dock. Humber pilots used to board from the pier but I don't think they still do.

The other side of the pier has a ramp known locally as the 'oss wash, a place for cleaning horses.

In the background looms the iconic Deep.

Keep Watching the Skies!

The old Corporation Pier, nowadays officially known as Victoria Pier, is a good place to check out the skies and the view over to Lincolnshire. If you're lucky and the tide is right then you might just catch a glimpse of something hunting in the shallows down below. 

Yup, that's a seal, okay not the best photo but definitely a seal. I've seen seals here twice so maybe they're not that rare but still an absolute bugger to photograph.

Seating Arrangement

These seats on Corporation Pier seem to have survived the purge on public seating currently underway in this town. From here you can rest and admire or loathe if you will the view I posted yesterday. Not many customers though (OK none). Perhaps not surprising since there's still a big hole in the pier. Is it really over eight  months since this damage was done? How time flies ...

Windy weather

This old weather vane sits on top of what was once the British Rail Ferry terminus by Corporation Pier. The figure is of Father Time with his scythe and hourglass symbolising no doubt the hours spent waiting for the ferry to arrive, especially since they built a big bridge just up the road.

I'm told, (OK it's in the Daily Mirror so maybe not that reliable) that Summer is officially over and we shall be having nothing but windy cold weather and rain for the foreseeable future, suits me fine.

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Fiat Lux

"Hey", said the guy who was fishing off the Corporation Pier, "they actually work! I thought they were just for show!" I looked a bit non-plussed, what could he mean?. "The fancy lights", he explained, "they work, not just decoration!" And I bet you thought it was just me that was cynical in these parts ...

“Trees, how many of 'em do we need to look at?”

A few years ago I noticed that the two elm trees on Nelson Street were going a bit patchy in the foliage ... oh no, I thought at the time, not the dreaded Dutch Elm Disease again ... still hope for the best I said to myself with no real expectation ... so it came as no great shock or surprise to find that they've recently been removed. Just two more casualties in the long running decimation of millions of these trees across this country and indeed the world.

Here's one of the beautiful beasts back in 2016 just starting to show signs of distress recorded, as it were, for posterity.

Elms produce hundreds of thousands of these 'seeds' every year from what I heard and read not one of them is fertile ... all English Elms are genetically identical clones (brought here by the Romans along with rabbits and pheasants, gratias vobis ago), which doesn't help things if you are looking for a disease resistant variety.

OK I admit I enlarged and fiddled with contrast on this to see how many rings I could count; somewhere around 170 was my best guess which puts our young elm here around 1850ish which would fit in nicely with the opening of the Corporation Pier for the ferry to Lincolnshire.