It's Never Dull in 'Ull

Dear Everyone,

It is now time to share with the world an exciting photographic tour of Hull, the places I often was, and how they look now. Interestingly, large parts of Hull simply look the same. Yes, you're right, that actually isn't very interesting. Either way, here is a little tour for you. Some of the photo evidence for the tour might be a little blurry; this is basically because it was a car-tour on the most part, courtesy of Oliver the Younger.

FIRST YEAR HOME
Arriving, fresh faced and eager, at University at the tender age of 18, I was naturally excited to be living away from home for the first time. Some students are nervous about this sort of thing, but 'The Lawns' complex assuaged this; filled with over a thousand noisy dirty drunken youths, it was not dissimilar to a student-orientated-supermarket-own-brand-Butlins. I couldn't take a picture of my old room, as people live there and that would have involved getting out of the car and walking around, but here is what someone else's room looked like, which, coincidentally, is exactly the same as mine:


And here is the sign for the set of Halls I lived in - there were seven 'Halls' on the Lawns, and each had 5 blocks and some bungalows within. There were usually 24 in a block, in open plan floors of 8 rooms to a floor, which meant 4 rooms per bathroom. Obviously, we in ‘E-Block’ of ‘Downs Hall’ were the coolest, but naturally attracted some odd ridicule at the naming of the Halls…


The Lawns was immense; it had it’s own bar, its own bus stop, and it’s own…er…football space. What more could you possibly want? Amusingly, the bus frequently got stuck in some rubble from the Driver trying to be clever and making the turning circle too small, so in later years (once we had moved out, so it was ok) our lovely bus shelter was removed, and the bus stop itself moved so the Drivers would cause less mayhem. On a side note, we needed that bus because The Lawns, though wonderful, was a good 15 minutes ride away from Campus. Or a 55 minute fast walk, WILLIAM. I shall hold that against you for the rest of my life!! Ahem. Here is the new Bus Stop, right next to the giant tree stump which used to be a tree:


And here is the Lawn’s Bar, from the outside. An intriguing place, full of ‘Snakey B’ (which is Diesel to any self respecting northerner), Ring of Fire, Apple Corky’s and dodgy juke box tunes. Well, in our day it was. I am told that since then they have kitted it out with not only widescreen TVs, but also a music collection which goes PAST the year 2000. Impressive. I wonder how many beer mats, glasses and bar runners (Miss Stretton…) we actually stole from in here.


This is a picture of some general ‘space’ in The Lawns. As you can possibly tell it was listed buildings surrounded by open grassy space; many adventures occurred on this grass, including ‘The Mud Football Incident’ and ‘That Time After The Rum When Kayleigh Wanted To Play In The Mud And Had To Be Restrained’. Mainly mud based stories, now I come to think on it.



So that was where I lived in first year. I will dig out interior shots to match all of these at some point in life!

SECOND YEAR HOME
In Second Year I lived in 151 DeGrey Street, with 5 or 6 other people (depending what day it was), including the lovely Mannymoo. This was very conveniently one second away from the student central shopping area of Newland Ave, but inconveniently further than you would think to the University. Having now sampled the walk some of my Newcastle Uni friends made daily, I probably should not complain, but being 20 minutes away from Campus in Hull was quite far! Here is a picture of the house, my room was amazing – I have always wanted an attic room with eaves, look at it there (the white one, mid picture), all velux window and everything!!

They even still have up the little felt-tipped sign I blue-tacked to the door before my Birthday Party in 2007!

Not much else to write about second year home. Houses in Second and Third Year were rather less exciting than the hive of Fresher-excitement which was the Lawns!

THIRD YEAR HOME
In Third Year I downsized to live with Jim and Tom in 48 Raglan Street. When we lived there, it was a three bed roomed wee house with Chinese neighbours who Jim loaned things to occasionally and who hung their knickers on coat hangers to dry, and with a mad European Old Cat Lady living down the road, and with a big empty space. We never found out why the space was there but it had clearly been there a long time; we suspected bombing in the war, but that was probably a little long ago. Anyway, shock horror, on my little tour, I discovered that someone has photo-shopped a brand new house in this street of old mingy houses!!! You can see it there. Pretending to be a real house. Anyway, my room in this one was the Upstairs, left AND right windows – was another amazing room, with a separate bed-room to stuff-room. Only down side was the fact that the wall between mine and Tom’s room was pretty much just wallpaper, without wall. Intrusive perhaps? Or cosy…


PLACES

This is turning into a bit of an epic post. I thought it might. But as Bette pointed out, Matt only ever looks at pictures, Simon only reads if his name is here (which, as I don’t know how to do that, it won’t be), and Steven may be uninterested as it isn’t G&S related. I’m sure SOME people are still reading!

Anyway, places I liked. I would have taken a picture of my favourite coffee shop in the world, Planet Coffee, but myself and Rory went there, sat outside and had a lovely drink, and then stole the cup. So I felt too anxious about being caught to hang around long! Plus it wasn’t as nice after they put furniture in the upstairs room and removed the carpet/beanbag area. I also took a couple of pictures of night clubs which I used to very much enjoy back in my 5-nights-a-week-drunk phase, but in the cold hard light of day these just weren’t impressive enough to make the cut. However, here are a few other places I liked…

The Old Grey Mare, famous for exceptionally cheap food and 6 shots for £5, just behind the first year bus stop, right opposite my building, perfect for taking your family to when you force them to come and see you in some sort of opera:


The Middleton Hall, famous for being the place where HUGSS used to stage their shows. Being on University property you would think that would make it cheaper to hire, but you would be wrong, however we always managed a fairly good storage-and-building system with them, and Bob The Sound And Lights Man was…well, he was there usually! The stage can be seen in other posts which showcase my G&S life, but this is the outside. There was also an Art Gallery in there which I believe I was once forced to go to as part of a seminar of some form.


The Larkin Building, famous for being where Kayleigh most often attended seminars. Sometimes Lectures. Though let’s face it, lectures weren’t compulsory. Also the home of the music department and rehearsal rooms. Unreliable lift; once witnessed the entire Pinafore cast (minus myself and one other sensible person traversing the stairs) get stuck in said lift. Hilarious.


The Library, famous for books. And amazing views of Hull from the windows. For anyone who doesn’t know, Hull is flat. Completely flat, everywhere you go, there are simply no hills or banks. This meant the prime topic of conversation on Open Days was if potential students had witnessed the view, which often they had, but not with the notion that they would spend a good 70% or more of their Library time gazing on it. The English Floor was Level 5, but in Third Year the ‘staring out of windows’ situation got so bad that I officially resigned any chance of getting a laptop-socket on 5th, and moved down to the little known first floor reference section. No windows there! Which is probably the only reason I salvaged my 2:1. Hilarious times in the library include one time when William got into a lift and abandoned me, and the million times fire alarms happened and everyone had to abandon everything and traipse down aaaaalll those stairs. Interestingly, there were two toilets per floor, on separate sides of the library – but only ever men’s OR women’s. Never both. The Library, ladies and gentlemen:



The Union. A place of happy times and happy things:


On the inside, the Union has pretty much completely changed since my first year. I remember arriving and having to negotiate my way through stupid amounts of corridors that led nowhere and stairs that missed a floor, and then some genius decided that what Hull Students REALLY need is a big glass staircase on the outside with a colour changing light in the top. Which didn’t take you anywhere that stairs didn’t previously go. But meant they had to re-build the entire Union insides. Which, in turn, meant that the rehearsal rooms were no longer allowed to be used for singing (although in two years we never got told off once). The Union enclosed the Hullfire (Student Magazine) Office, where I think I spend some of my time as Arts Editor…at least once or twice…a shop (complete with pick-n-mix stand), a smoothie bar, a Waterstones, several cafes, the Sanctuary Bar (best place ever, complete with outside decking area), the Johnny Mac Bar (home of HUGSS Variety Shows and Wednesday Night AU Carnage) and Asylum, the Hull Student’s on site night club. Too many good times to list. They’ve since moved the shop into the café, moved some chairs into the shop and forced the smoothie bar into an old office, but it still feels the same! Here is Sanc, from the outside, in the distance under some trees…


Thwaite Hall. I never went here (another version of The Lawns but for people with lots of money) but more often than not it would make me chuckle driving past the sign for it when some smart alec had removed letters, so that the sign read “T w a t Hall”. Never fails to amuse.


Phone Boxes. There was an exciting adventure once where we got 8 people into a phone box AND shut the door. Good times. All the phones in Hull belong to Kingston Communications, so they dictate that all phone boxes are white, so here is an example for you:


The Royal Quays Shopping Centre: Only Hull would have a shopping centre built on some strange man made lake. Occasionally there were ducks or fountains here. Occasionally students fell in, as this is in Hull Town Centre, opposite popular night clubs. Always, there was murky nasty water.


And to finish off, this is a nice blurry picture of the house that one day, I will live in. Apart from the fact that it is on a main road into Student-ville, it looks like it fell out of Jane Austen. Good times.


Ladies and Gentlemen, I ask you to please thank our driver for today:


And I leave you with the suggestion that, should you ever visit Hull – take someone with you who knows how to show you the nice bits. They will probably just take you to Beverley, which is a nice little village next door, but you might drive through Hull on the way!
I miss Hull.