The things people get up to ...

I know you all think of Hull as a place of wonder and amazement and I do nothing to dispel you from that notion but today unfortunately I have to show you a less salubrious side of this magnificent city. Here on George Street is a lap dancing club that goes by the name of Fantasy. Now purely for research purposes, you  understand, I have looked this place up on the internet and it appears to operate on the principle of a fool and his money soon being parted.

Rose Villa

Rose Villa stands at the entrance to Pearson Park on Beverley Road. It's now a care home for the elderly but must have been some rich man's fantasy back in the early 1900's when Beverley Road looked like the picture below taken from almost the exact spot as the above.

Finishing touch

Up above the shoppers on Whitefriargate this neat little boat and dolphins nicely finishes off the Marks and Spencer's building. M&S are the last remaining major chain on Whitefriargate which is rapidly declining into a mix of pawnbrokers, betting shops and charity shops. It used to be the main shopping area in the city and with competition from the glass and steel monsters down the road it looks doomed.

Past and present

Or more properly present and past. Above we have the entrance to Princes Quay shopping mall viewed across the Hull hole. Below how it used to be many years back, well before I came to Hull and before pedestrianisation. Yep, that's a ship parked up against a shop.

I don't know who took this photograph, I 'borrowed' it from a Facebook group and where it came from before then is anyone's guess. Isn't sharing awesome?

From Scott Street Bridge

In April I posted about Scott street bridge and its plight here. It appears there is little or no hope of restoration, it's too far gone and besides there's no money. Anyhow here is the view upstream, regular readers will recognise Reckitt's chimney lurking in the background.

View across the river

I had to poke my camera through a security fence on Tower Street to take this view of the Arctic Corsair moored up by the Transport Museum. One of the effects of the current financial depression is that the redevelopment of the east bank of the Hull has been put on hold (possibly indefinitely) so it remains fenced off and inaccessible.

Developer gets the hump

Some more images of the redevelopment of the Humber dock area, both taken some time ago (3 years! the old tempus has certainly fugited). The brown building on the right used to be a pub or club called, I think, Pepi's, anyhow it's since been demolished with a view to putting up some new 'attraction' or other. Well that was until the developer fell out with the Council calling one particular councillor the "rudest man" he'd ever met. Having seen the plans for this area I think rudeness was probably justified.