Saturday 7 June 2014

Lurkin' Toad


If you're taking a short cut through the cemetery and get that feeling of something not quite right it might just be that giant toad that you glimpsed out of the corner of your eye ...

The Weekend in Black and White is here.

Friday 6 June 2014

Perfect timing


Followers of this blog with exceptional memories may recall a post involving the Bradford and Bingley building which, in 2012, had been empty since the crash of our esteemed banking sector way back in whenever. Well the building is still empty but some enterprising folks have pasted art works in the windows. So I took a position across the street to get my photo when this young man walked past just as, well, as you see...

Thursday 5 June 2014

Newland Homes


Way, way back in 1821 there was founded the Port of Hull Society for the Religious Instruction of Seamen originally to administer to the spiritual needs of sailors and their families but later also their welfare and educational wants and, more especially, the needs of  sailors' orphans. As demand grew a village of twelve 'cottage homes' (each named after one of the rich sponsors who had clearly not read Matthew 6:3!) was built in and around 1897 on  Cottingham Road and housed at one time 360 children. It had its own school and sanatorium. As the years rolled by with welcome changes in child care fewer and fewer children were being placed in  these homes and they were sold off in 2004 leaving only the school still running. There is an excellent history of all this here.
The homes were originally built with yellow bricks which over the years thanks to coal fires and so on  have become mucky, for want of a better word. When new buildings were erected nearby, they too had to be of yellow brick and they don't half stand out.


Wednesday 4 June 2014

On the level


A restaurant on Newland Avenue was undergoing a makeover last week.  Formerly known as Piola, a busy Italian restaurant, it seems it is be called Level a name which gives nothing away.

Tuesday 3 June 2014

Linnet and Lark


"Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees; so they camped there by the waters."

The Linnet and Lark on Princes Avenue was once a second hand car dealers and from appearances hasn't changed much, out with the rusting cut-and-shuts and in with fizzy beer pumps add a bit of what is called entertainment  from 'up and coming  local talent' (this goes by the soubriquet of 'The Sesh'; session being too difficult a word to remember) and leave the rest to your imagination. Oh I forgot to mention the large TV showing football matches, which apparently attracts the sort of crowd you might expect it to attract.
The church lurking in the background dates from the time (1897ish) when there were no pubs at all on Princes Avenue, yes I know that is difficult to believe when it seems every building on the street is now in the refreshment trade. It was built as a Pentecostal church but now belongs to the Elim Pentecostals, the difference is no doubt as great as that between selling cars or beer ...

Monday 2 June 2014

Thwart, Tabernacle, Taffrail


I may have mentioned once or twice that there's a new swing bridge in town on Scale Lane Statithe. Well to go with this Scale Lane itself has been given a makeover with seating and plants and these little inserts in the pavement highlighting parts of sailing ships.


So as you walk down this short stretch you go up the rigging of some tall ship, well anyway that's the idea, but I guess most people won't even know these things are there and will just walk over them. I did think the one below sounded painful until I looked up what it was.
 

Sunday 1 June 2014

Get stuck in!


At the end of a busy day the working man deserves nothing less than a hearty meal and an ice cold pint of the amber nectar. He might also like a little privacy and not have some prying person point a camera at him from a passing bus but, hey, you can't have everything.

The months just fly by these days and here's another one starting up which can only mean one thing: theme day at City Daily Photo where for want of anything better 'zest' was plucked out of the dictionary and flung down as a challenge. See who has been bold (or stupid) enough to take it up here.