"Gatsby believed in the green light"

"Always it is by bridges that we live"

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jul/28/scale-lane-bridge-hull-review

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/sep/07/poet-philip-larkin-trail-hull

Times Like These

Hull Heritage Open Day 2013
Trinity House Chapel
From the outside...

....and the inside

What I love about the annual Heritage Open Days is that they give you a once-only opportunity to get a glimpse at something that remains hidden the rest of the year - places you pass by all the time and have never noticed, or wondered 'what's behind that door?'. Whenever I've walked down Princes Dock Street, I could never have imagined a sea god reclining under a stained glass window was behind the gates of Trinity House ...Or that a perfectly preserved parquet floor and Art Deco fireplace lay up an unprepossessing staircase in a former fruit brokers on the corner of Humber Street.* Like Alice In Wonderland, you briefly get to go through a door into another world. In some cases, it's the last opportunity you'll get, before a building alters forever - like Samman House, which is being converted into flats (sympathetic to its original features, according to its developers). Who wouldn't want those stained glass windows in their living room?!

*Caleb's Place houses an antiques centre which is open all year-round

The photos below are are of the stained glass windows in Samman House, formerly Hull Chamber of Commerce, on Bowl Alley Lane. The Heritage Open Days brochure describes them as "the first (photo) depicting shipping through the ages while the second set of four panels were installed 30 years later as part of the city's contribution to the Festival of Britain in 1951, and were gifts from the paint, seed crushing and wholesale grocery trades and depict in detail the processes and places involved in these trades". It was poignant to recognise some of those trades and places and those that have disappeared, in a building whose own use has changed with the times, and will hopefully remain a testament to them.

Tales Of Us

Goldfrapp Tales Of Us World Premiere
 Manchester International Festival
Albert Hall
17th July 2013

Salford Rainbow

Peel Park, Salford - 6th July 2013
(Left: Salford Art Gallery, right & below: Royal Technical College)

As I write, Autumn seems to have arrived with a vengeance, and appreciation for the abruptly departed Summer feels oddly overenthusiastic to me, given that it only actually arrived 2 months ago, when I took these photos (only one of the many vivid memories I have of that weekend). Sunshine - in Salford. What would Mr Lowry, who immortalised these very scenes in his art (as well as studying at the Technical College) have made of that pastoral idyll, I could only guess. I can imagine Celia Birtwell and Ossie Clark, who met and studied at the College too (not at the same time as Lowry though...what a class that would've been!) finding sensuous pleasure and inspiration for their designs on that balmy evening there though...

The New Look in Manchester*

Gallery of Costume: Platt Hall, Manchester
June 2013

I felt very scruffy photographing these very elegant ladies in the rarefied surroundings of Platt Hall. I could only imagine what they got up to when the museum is closed. And yet, looking again, the above photo has quite a forlorn air, as they are lit ethereally by the natural light of the window, yet can't see anything. Even if I can never reach their glamorous heights, at least I am thankful I have a head. And eyes...

*(No, not that one)

Preparing for 'Transmission'

New Order at Jodrell Bank

The day did come - on 7th July - when New Order played live at Jodrell Bank, ably supported by fellow Manc music hero Johnny Marr, who was joined by Electronic partner Bernard Sumner for a 'did I dream this?' performance of Getting Away With It, before he returned with NO.  I lost my internet connection just before and have only just been able to access it again, so it's a bit incongruous to be posting this photo of the band before the gig, 2 months ago (from the Live From Jodrell Bank website)...But then the photo itself is pretty incongruous (is that Hooky's New Order book they're proofreading? Or Bernard's?!) and New Order themselves have never been ones to do anything to deadline, have they?!