Colourful Doorway

Behind these doors on Chanterlands Avenue there's a small garden centre. I think it's a safe bet that the same guy also decorated their van which I showed last year.

Trouble brewing

On the right St Mary's, Lowgate part of the Church of England which increasingly becomes irrelevant and absurd. It likes to think it is important because the State likes to appear to have 'religion' but no-one takes them seriously and haven't for centuries. To the left the old central Post Office now apartments for those who like to live in converted offices. 

The decline of the C of E and the inevitable privatisation of the Royal Mail are insignificant to the events going on elsewhere. In the middle of the picture the Guildhall once the seat of local democracy is now a vehicle for this repressive Government's policies. Local government in this country has been a castrated beast for thirty years or more with powers being centralised to Whitehall. Now the beast is being asked to do the dirty work for this unmandated Government. Hull Council say they have to sack 600 workers due a cut in grants from central Government (you see how the beast was robbed of its power now, local Government cannot raise funds independently, no money no power). But there's more and worse,  much worse to come. From April benefit receivers who used to get full Council Tax relief will now have to pay a percentage of that tax. In Hull that's 8% but in East Riding  of Yorkshire, where I live, it's at least 25%! On top of that there's the introduction of the Bedroom Tax. Housing Benefit to social housing tenants will be cut if it is deemed that there are too many bedrooms. This means for many tenants that they can no longer afford to live in their homes, homes that they've occupied for years in many cases. People with disabilities are going to have to move out of properties that have been converted to accommodate their needs. And so and so on. You get the picture; it's a nightmare for these people and it's going to lead to unrest. The Government which no-one voted for and which has presided over the longest recession ever in this country's history is passing the bill for the crimes of the bankers onto the poorest in the land while giving tax cuts to the rich (Up to £100,000 for millionaires, we can't have them and their entrepreneurial talents leave the country now, can we? How would we manage without them?). Well we shall see who pays in the end. 

Candlemas Day was clear and bright ...

...So Winter is having another bite.

A snowy flurry on Bishop Lane Staithe which in better times looks like this.

Hardy Souls

This was taken last week when the fog rolled in from the Humber. Temperature then was a balmy 3 or 4C. Today it's 0C with a wind that makes it feel like -3 or -4C and there's a dusting of snow to cheer things up.

22 & 23

Here's a detail above a doorway on Silver Street. I don't know what the building was built as in 1886 but now it houses a hairdresser.

More monochrome images at the Weekend in Black & White.

Giving York a hug

This plaque is high up on what used to be Barclay's bank at the corner of Silver Street and Trinity House Lane. It probably goes unnoticed by the vast majority of folks. If they did notice it and were familiar with heraldic coats of arms they  might wonder why some misty eyed maid was hugging the shield of the city of York. The bank, as is the way of things these days, is now a public house named after a member of one of Hull's old banking families William Wilberforce.

England's smallest window

I know you've always wondered just where is the smallest window in England so I'll put you out of your misery. Here it is in the magical Land of Green Ginger. Click on the image to enlarge and the plaque explains it all. Now I wonder if it's double glazed ....