The Stadium Church

Sitting at the junction of the Boulevard and Anlaby Road this is St Matthew's church. It was built in 1870 to accommodate the expanding city's spiritual needs. Whether or not it managed that I don't know but it's still open for business after all these years unlike many other Victorian churches built at that time. The church's website informs me that it has a special ministry for sport and also for the annual Hull Fair. The church has taken to calling itself the Stadium Church due its closeness to the KC Stadium though the latter has far bigger (all paying) congregations.

Shopping Arcade Blues

I have posted before about the two Victorian arcades in the town centre, Hepworth Arcade and Paragon Arcade. They are cosy little places with small independent retailers and built on a human scale. That was the style at the time and things are different now. In St Stephens nothing is on a human scale and there seems to be no small independent shops; they're all national or international stores from Next to H&M to the biggest Tesco's imaginable. It's all bit cold, soulless and dispiriting, a bit like those floating daleks pretending to be Christmas trees.

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.

Twinkle twinkle

The stars are out at St Stephen's shopping arcade. Something to do with an upcoming event at the end of the month I fear.

Wellington Boot

Just passed this pub on Russell Street and noticed the interesting sign. I once entered this pub more than thirty years ago and left pretty pronto as the place stank like an open latrine. I can only hope it has improved since then. A local historian has written a piece about this place and you can read it here.

Looking Out Again

I could have used this for yesterday's theme day of 'Looking Out'. This is another shot of the Voyage that sits gazing out at the Humber opposite the Deep. I hadn't seen it lit up for the night before and I rather like the green glow.

You can catch up with the theme day here.

Looking out

Here's our Jack who was just idling staring as cats are wont to do when a racing pigeon landed on the windowsill. I don't know who was more surprised. Pigeons are supposed to fly straight home aren't they? This one stopped around for a few days before going on its way (at least I hope it did and the cat didn't catch up with it!). It's not a particularly good shot of either the cat or the pigeon but it does show what a jungle the garden gets in Summer and the windows could do with a clean.

It's the first of the month and the City Daily Photo theme is 'Looking Out'. You can see what others have done with this here.