"Buses are running well late"

Carr Lane

I was in town this afternoon on a spot of business and ran into a classic Hull gridlock with buses backed up on Carr Lane, Ferensway full in both directions and Anlaby Road looking like a no-go area as well. Marvellous! And not helped by the road works I mentioned  a week ago. The title is what I overheard a bus company man saying to a frustrated passenger. My bus home took 15 minutes to do 300 yards just leaving the station, even I can walk faster than that with my gammy leg and all.

Ferensway

Junction Carr Lane, Ferensway and Anlaby Road

Fun on Ferensway

A bit of skyline on Ferensway with the St Stephens on the right, the arches of Paragon Station and the new coffee hut which, on closer inspection, seems to have no appeal whatsoever.

More reflections on Ferensway

 

1930s Ferensway reflected in the very new St Stephens Mall. 

Weakest Link

Exceptional conditions show up the vulnerable spots in any defense. So it was earlier this month when the highest tide ever recorded breached Hull's defenses at this spot by the Albert Dock. There's local dispute as to whether or not the dock gates failed but what is known is that the dock quay was overtopped by a couple of feet and water rushed across town as far as Ferensway. There's another predicted spring tide round about New Year's Day, let's hope there's no low pressure system wandering down the North Sea at that time.

Road Works

For the past few months the orange bollards and safety fencing have been up at one of the busiest junctions in town where Beverley Road and Spring Bank meet Ferensway and Freetown Way. The plan is to widen the junction, renew the traffic lights and make bigger islands for pedestrians to cross over. They'll also throw in some so-called pedestrians light controlled push buttons but as these won't actually do anything until the traffic has been stopped by the traffic lights they are really just for show. As with all road works in this town delays are inevitable; last Thursday, for example, I was on the bus into town and got caught in a jam so slow that we made 50 whole yards in ten minutes. In the end I got off and walked. (If you zoom in real close to the centre of the picture my bus is the red and cream one still stuck on Beverley Road ten minutes after I got off it!) The rumour is that this work will be completed ahead of schedule, that'll be a relief and we'll be back to the natural background rate of delays. I expect, though, that the junction will look pretty much the same as it did before which is to say not very pretty at all..

Standing room only

Plans have been published for a £25 million revamp of the city centre. On the whole they don't look too bad, a few gripes here and there about minor details but, there is one major fault that screams out from the picture shown. There are practically no seats, nowhere to sit and admire the grand works. Seems this no seats policy is part of a worrying trend.
Back in December 2012 I posted about plans to develop an outdoor café area near the War Memorial on Ferensway.  Well it's up and running and looking every bit as tatty as I imagined. The price paid for all those cuppucinni al fresco is that there are now no seats for members of the public to rest their weary backsides on. Even the seats by the memorial have been removed. If you want to sit down near here you've got to be a paying customer. 

Thanks to marvells of Google Street View or whatever it's called here's what this place looked like before it was cleared to make way for the cafe culture. Clearly we can't have people just sitting around and not paying; what's the fun in that? Mind you it appears that the very thought of sitting down and thinking for a short while is so horrific for some that they would rather give themselves an electric shock so maybe removing the seats eases their stress.... but planners please bear in mind some people do like to sit and admire the view.

Copyright Google, so sue me!

Computers? They'll never catch on ...

First proper computer I bought cost best part of £900 had a pathetic amount memory and disk space and was incredibly slow but this was before broadband, wi-fi and pre-Google and Facebook. It had Windows95 on it and was fond of giving a blue screen of death if the weather so much as changed slightly. By modern standards it was an abacus. It came from a company called Tiny who had store here on Ferensway. Days after the machine arrived Tiny went bankrupt as did so many successors and this store has been empty for years now. So although 21 million homes in the UK have a computer and access to the internet where ever they are getting their kit from it isn't from here.

Dreggsgate

So tell me, for my ignorance is immense, how do civilised places deal with increasing anti-social behaviour? Do they not call in the police to deal with it? Employ some security staff to eject malfeasant scum? Maintain a presence of authority to let them know who's in charge? Or ... Do they lock the doors and hide in their office like timorous mice? Abjectly surrender to the guilty, criminal few at the expense of the innocent majority? 

I ask because never in my few years on this earth have I seen such pathetic cowardly actions as those carried out recently in Hull Paragon Station. The gates you see above will be closed to all and sundry between 9.30 and 16.30 to reduce crime .... It is so reassuring that criminal types keep such a workaday schedule, they probably sing that Dolly Parton earworm as they go about their nefarious dealings ... Station manager Dan Dreggs (I'm not making this up) has placed notices up explaining that it's really British Transport Police's plan ...but it's his name on the notices and he is responsible for this act of stupidity.

The whole thing would be laughable if it did not have repercussions on those who absolutely must use this gate, they are told they should book ahead to get admission. But many did not know and so could not, neither can a good few even read the sign because disability comes in many forms and the Dreggs of this world are just way out of their depths ... did I mention that taxis drop off their fares outside this gate? That the main car park for the station is outside this gate? So both fit and frail must both make their way right around the front of the station and enter via Ferensway just because a few miscreant nobodies have ruined the peace of Mr Dreggs and he simply cannot cope (between the hours of 9.30 and 16.30!)... oh yes, this was until a fortnight ago signed as a fire exit ...

A petition has been running since this idiocy began you can sign it here should you be outraged by this nonsense.

A great many are of the opinion that this action is contrary to disability discrimination legislation; I feel it may well be so.

Improvements

It seems that 1970s browned glass windows (some call it 'gold' but some is fools) that give photographers such nice reflections are somewhat passé and doomed to the poubelles de l'histoire. So I mentioned the windows on High Street a while back (in passing I'll mentioned that the company involved with that has just gone into liquidation ...) and now plans have been made to change the windows on Europa House on Ferensway to bring them up to date or whatever the excuse is. Still given that the place has never been fully used since 1975 and was sold recently for less than the price of a good new car (£12,000 was the price since you ask) a change might be a good idea. 

You want to know what it might look like? OK here's the picture from the local paper, just don't tell anyone I borrowed it.

I have to say I think this is an improvement ... it's brighter, lighter and there'll still be some reflections.

The Royal Hotel

Sometimes called the Station Hotel, the Royal sits in front of Paragon Station on Ferensway. It was built in 1851. In 1990 I watched as one of the biggest fires in Hull destroyed the inside of the building. No-one was killed or seriously injured and within two years the place had been rebuilt.

If you're interested there's a website here 

It's all done by mirrors

This is Europa House on Ferensway and Anlaby Road. It's clearly been built with photographers in mind.

I posted some reflections from this building before here.

Vacated

This month's theme of 'abandoned' could have been designed for Hull. It's like shooting fish in a barrel (did anybody ever do that?). Staples had been in this store on Ferensway for donkeys years, the place was always empty and almost never had what I needed and if it did it was way too expensive. Anyhow Staples has moved to a slightly smaller, slightly more out-of-town site on Clough Road (along with the Police, the Fire Brigade and old Uncle Tom Cobley and all ...). This building joins on to the empty computer store I posted a while back making a seriously large vacant ex-retailing space in the centre of town. Maybe it can be filled with 'culture' of some sort for next year's bean feast...

Flooding

All today the news has been about an expected storm surge down the east coast. Tonight though the Tidal Surge Barrier has done its job and kept out the surge in other areas the Humber has come over the defenses and flooded parts of the city. The levels peaked at the highest ever recorded. As I write (8.30pm) areas to the west of the city, Hessle Road and Hessle itself are under water and suffering power cuts. Ferensway is under water along with the A63/Castle Street. People have been evacuated from around Victoria Dock. I've heard that the traffic lights are out of action and there's gridlock in town. It's a big mess really though the buses are still running so civilisation has not ground to a halt. High tide has passed but there two more high tides tomorrow that are a cause for concern. Meanwhile the surge carries on down the coast with evacuations in progress and the real prospect of considerable damage but hopefully no loss of life.

Classical Beauties

The Royal Hotel on Ferensway has joined the jamboree with these pieces of pseudomarmoreal pulchritude. Nothing says 'culture' better than a scantily clad lady with a jug.

Going downhill on Ferensway

In what used to be the C&A store that closed because the parent company withdrew from the UK and later became TJ Hughes' store that went bust in the 'great recession' here's Poundland. A shop where every item costs £1. Do you see any progress here? A mid-range clothing firm becomes a down market retailer becomes the bottom feeder of price-point retailing. Poundland is successful with nearly 3 million customers a week and stores across the UK but then if you get some of your staff free from the Government under the workfare scheme that is bound to help with the bottom line [ 1 ]. 

Who will stop me?

“Do you mean to tell me that you're thinking seriously of building that way, when and if you are an architect?"

"Yes."

"My dear fellow, who will let you?"

"That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?” 

― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

Here, at the junction of Ferensway and Freetown Way, is a fitting testament to the supremacy of man, the ferro-concrete box. 

Conic Section

Yesterday's staircase pops out of the top of this sliced blue cone. This is the Albemarle Music Centre  constructed to replace a plain brick building of such little note that hardly anyone can remember what it looked like. It's all part of the general development of Ferensway that includes the St Stephens shopping centre, a hotel and a theatre which I'll show tomorrow.
This is where the talented youths of the East Riding go to practice and play their instruments. The centre has two large rehearsal spaces and teaching rooms for the 16 Hull music ensembles as well as rehearsal space for the Hull Philharmonic Orchestra and the Yorkshire Young Musicians. It cost £3 million and opened in 2007.
Chris Hall of Holder Mathias Architects said: “The Albemarle Music Centre is a jewel in the St Stephen’s scheme. We have worked alongside the City of Hull and our client, ING Real Estate Development to create a building that will serve schools in the area well, and be something of which the people of Hull will be proud.” But then I guess he would say something along those lines. 

The Cecil

I can't believe I haven't posted this former cinema before now. It stands on the corner of Ferensway and Anlaby Road. The Cecil was opened in 1955 with a screening of the Seven Year Itch. It has a rather dull looking exterior perhaps because the architects, local firm Gelder & Kitchen, were more noted for designing flour mills than cinemas.  This was where I saw the last film I paid to go watch, (Splash, since you ask, with Daryl Hannah as a mermaid, yeah I know, pathetic!) and as I'm told it closed as a cinema in 1992 that just shows what an avid film buff I am. The building is now a Mecca bingo hall. The picture is a reflection in a window of Europa House which was built on the site of the original Cecil which stood on the opposite corner until May 8th 1941 when it was destroyed by the Germans dropping bombs on it as was the style in those days.

Weekend reflections are here.

Hull: City of Culture!

It's over two years since I posted about the Albemarle Music Centre on Ferensway. Pretty soon after that post the place was threatened with closure due to a funding crisis. Fortunately funding for three years was secured last year so it can continue to be one of the country's music hubs providing an opportunity for children to learn to sing or play a musical instrument. Money well spent I think you'll agree and I was happy to read recently that this July three orchestras involving about a hundred young musicians from the centre will play at the Music for Youth festival in Birmingham. So good luck to them.

While I'm striking a cultural note I suppose I must mention Hull's bid to be the UK City of Culture in 2017.  I kid you not. The Council's bid may have attracted some jibes from various quarters but I can see no harm in at least trying to bolster the cultural amenities of the city which are often overlooked in these desperate times. Even if they don't win, making the city a more pleasant place to live and work is surely a worthwhile investment (It's something they should be doing anyway and not waiting for patronising crumbs off the Government's table). And imagine the fun if Hull won!

After this piece appeared over the weekend bookmakers cut the odds on Hull winning to 6-1! Betting, like plagiarism, is basic to all culture. 

Sydney House

I rather liked the look of Sydney House which sits along Adelaide Street and Cogan Street, two tree lined and seemingly pleasant avenues. As council flats go I've seen far uglier ways of housing a lot of people in a small area. Ah but would I want to live there? I'm afraid I am not worthy to share in the delights of having Castle Street on one side, Ferensway on another, the Salvation Army hostel just across the road and a neighbourhood (I think 'community' is the current must-use word these days) that is somewhat high on unemployment, social deprivation and crime. I feel I must leave these pleasures to others more fortunate than myself.