It rained rather a lot when we were in Hull. I generally write these posts without notes, based on the pictures I take and my memories, and for things that were now almost four months ago, unless I took photographs my memories are often a little vague. So writing about Friday night in Friday in Hull I mentioned that we ate in one of Larkin’s haunts, the Royal Station Hotel. We did eat there, but it was on the Sunday night, not on the Friday.
Friday night we had decided to eat somewhere on Princes Avenue, a street with a considerable number of eateries, most of which I would give a miss, and we took a bus there. Usually such vague ideas result in a lot of walking along and looking at menus before we find somewhere we can both agree is possibly suitable, but this time it was different. Almost as soon as we got off the bus, the heavens opened, and torrential rain had us scurrying for a bus shelter. The rain kept on, and after perhaps ten minutes the pavement inside the bus shelter was beginning to flood.
From the shelter we could see the lights of an Italian restuarant, ‘UNO’s Trattoria -Pizzeria’ and we made a dash for it, hoping there was room for us and that the storm and the flood would subside before we had finished our meal (and they had.) It was a place I would probably have walked passed without bothering to examine, but we had one of the best Italian meals there I’ve had for a long time, and certainly the best I’ve found in Hull. Thanks to a thunderstorm.
TripAdviser (not something I’d generally take too seriously) rates it as #21 of 534 Restaurants in Kingston-upon-Hull, and it gets some seriously good reviews – with the usual one or two with a grudge, who sound like very awkward customers who made a real nuisance of themselves.
Sunday started off rainy, and after another breakfast in the Admiral of the Humber (a modern Wetherspoons with their standard menu, decent and cheap) I refilled my coffee and waited there until I could go and worhsip again at the Kollwitz show, having pointed Linda towards Holy Trinity.
After lunch it wasn’t raining too hard and we set off for a walk down Springbank to Hull General Cemetery, apparently a favourite place for Larkin as well as for Linda an myself, somewhere we often walked while staying with her parents.
From the cemetery we head down Chants, familiar but different, with most of the shops having changes hands and business. We crossed Bricknell to go down the alley to Loveridge Ave, though the tenfoot there is now behind locked gates we could walk past the front of the house Linda grew up in. In the cemetery further on we visited her parents’ grave, and then walked on to Cottingham Road, turning down Newland Park, to see West Garth where we had often stayed with our friend Ian and then on to Larkin’s house, complete with a large toad.
Back to Cottingham Road through the eastern entrace to Newland Park we ran to catch a bus back into town. The services on a Sunday afternoon are few and far between. We spotted another Larkin sign as the bus passed Sharp St, where I’ve often stopped to photograph the street’s war memorial, moved several times as the buildings it was on have been replaced, and recently refurbished again.
Then it was time for the visit to the Royal Station Hotel (officially now the Mercure Hull Royal Hotel) for dinner as mentioned in a previous post. Good company but the food was nothing special.
We were leaving Hull at lunchtime on Monday, so had a morning still to spend. Despite light rain we went for a walk, taking Anlaby Road out of town as far as the ‘flyover’ where Linda left me as she wanted to revisit the Ferens which opened shortly, and I made my way along some back streets and then Boulevard to Hessle Rd.
On my way the rain turned from light to rather heavy, but I was determined to find a mural to ‘Big Lil’ that had been painted since I was last in Hull, and put up my umbrella and strode on. Despite the brolly I was pretty wet by the time I reached it, but managed to take a few pictures and then walked back a little way into town before the rain came on even more heavily, and I was glad to find a bus shelter, and, after a few minutes, a bus to take me back to collect my luggage at the hotel.
As we left Hull, the rain stopped and the sun came out.
More text and pictures:
Wet Sunday Morning in Hull
Spring Bank, Chants & Newland Park
Anlaby Rd & Hessle Rd
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My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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