I am now ready to resume blogs/posts following surgery on 31st December last. Not rushing about just yet but making progress.
The photo above shows an area on the corner of Sykes St. and Bourne St. in Kingston upon Hull (just north of the east end of Freetown Way). The remnant of St. Mary, Lowgate’s detached burial ground is nearby (see later), but I am not sure if this area was ever part of it. Areas such as the above are generally referred to as ‘pocket parks’; they are usually dominated by either a children’s playground or planted trees (as here). K. upon H. has many pocket parks of varying sizes, sometimes blighted by rubbish, sometimes genuinely valued by local residents, although, as one might expect in Hull, devoid of benches. The eight trees growing here were probably planted in the 1950s (my estimate) and add eight green canopies to the city’s arboreal stock in spring and summer.
In the background stand the polite Georgian almshouses built at the eastern end of Hull’s Georgian new town (suburb) and here on the site of the pre-Reformation Carthusian monastery founded by Michael De la Pole in the 14th century.
Off to the left along Sykes St. is a development of two-storey, inter- war flats with further examples behind along New George St. Looking a bit tired now, and probably blighted by some irresponsible tenants, but still going strong and a very interesting area of its type.