Victorian Hull

Today Scamp and I walked into town to buy Eleanor's birthday presents from Argos and as I had my camera with me I took some pics.

When I go into the centre of Hull I am always reminded that Hull was once a great port in the nineteenth century, and everywhere you look there is evidence of this.

First pic, City Hall with banners commemorating the bicentary of William Wilberforce, who was from Hull and instrumental in abolishing slavery. Towering plinth with Queen Victoria perched on high, from when Britain ruled the waves, and is that Neptune with some sort of trident at the base?

Second pic, entrance to Pearson Park. When Hull was wealthy the Victorians built a great many parks with ornate villas surrounding them, and here is one of them. The arch is decorated in a suitably nautical theme.

Interesting Pearson Park because Philip Larkin (one of England's foremost poets)lived in this villa and this is where he wrote 'High Windows', and you can see why. I think he lived in a flat on the top floor and which looked down on Pearson Park.(Fifth pic). In the poem he talks about looking at the lovers sitting on the grass in the park below and later,

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows

The sun comprehending glass

And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows

Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless

If I won the lottery fourth pic is where I would want to live. It's called 'The Avenues' and the villas are glorious. This is where the middle classes lived, but surrounding it are the artisan terraces which, although on a humble scale, are similarly elegant. Fancy being so full of yourself that you built an ornate fountain just because you could with (what looks like) mermaids playing sea shells and swans holding up bowl of the fountain.

Who says Hull is a gritty drab city? Certainly not me.