Return to Prince Street, Hull

click photo to enlarge
Like many photographers, when I find a subject that appeals to me I try to secure the best photograph of it that I possibly can. However, if you have only a single occasion on which to get your shot, then you have to put up with the light, weather, season and other circumstances that prevail at the time. Consequently the end result can be disappointing because you don't achieve the possibilities that you can see in the subject.

But, where the subject is one that you can photograph with reasonable frequency the opportunity exists to improve on your earlier efforts. If you look through this blog you will find several photographs where this has been my motivation. The Humber Bridge is one such example in this blog - see here for the deep rich colours of winter, here for a dull, damp winter view, and here for a contre jour shot with people for scale. Today's post is another example of a trying to get a better shot of a subject.

I first photographed Prince Street in Hull in the 1970s and 1980s. The view from the Market Place through the archway to the curving line of three-storey, multicoloured, terraced houses of the 1770s is quite appealing. I'd more recently tried again with the subject at the end of November 2012. On that last occasion the flat lighting and the line of rubbish bins waiting to be emptied detracted from the shot. The weather on our recent visit was much more promising, and as we walked through this part of the Old Town I tried again and produced a shot that I like much better. The contrast between the deep shadows of the arch and trees with the bright, sunlit buildings works very nicely, and the silhouette of the wall-mounted street light adds a welcome detail.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 28mm (56mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6 Shutter Speed: 1/2000 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.33 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Setts and cobblestones

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Many people assume that an old road that is laid with stones is "cobbled" and that such stones are called "cobblestones". The word "setts" isn't widely known, but where it is, there is a general belief that it is synonymous with cobbles. However, the two types of stone road surface are different.

The essence of the distinction is as follows: cobblestones are found and setts are made. So, cobblestones may be - and often are - large (bigger than 2.5 inches but smaller than 10 inches), water-worn pebbles, that are laid closely together, frequently irregularly, but sometimes with patterns and borders. Setts are cut, rectangular, blocks of stone, usually granite, that are laid in stepped parallel courses, rather like a horizontal, stretcher bond, wall. An example of a road constructed of granite setts is shown in today's photograph which shows Pilot Street in King's Lynn, Norfolk. Such a road is very durable, looks great, with the slight differences in colour of the setts adding to its appeal, but is somewhat uncomfortable to walk, cycle and drive over. It is for the latter reason that many British cobbled roads and those laid with setts were taken up or covered with a smooth layer of tarmacadam. However, many survived, and quite a few of those that were buried have since been revealed and repaired.

This particular street in King's Lynn has a charming and interesting collection of houses spanning several centuries and on one side borders the churchyard of the town's second largest medieval church, St Nicholas. I plan to make the street the subject of a future blog post.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 24mm
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/50
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On 

Prince Street, Hull

click photo to enlarge
On a recent dull and very windy day I spent a few hours in and around Hull's "old town", the original core of the city that is built around the medieval street plan. It's an area that holds a fascinating variety of buildings dating from the medieval period through to the present day. When I lived in the city during the 1970s and 1980s I enjoyed many a happy day walking the winding streets, decoding buildings that had been overlaid with the hopes and aspirations of successive centuries, photographing the worn streets, dark alley ways (called staithes in this part of England), and enjoying the reflected light from Hull and Humber. At that time the old town was barely holding its own, venerable buildings were being pulled down and the interesting road surfaces made of pitch-impregnated timber blocks were patched with tarmac and concrete. However, the 1980s and 1990s saw a more enlightened attitude to the area take hold, its visual, historic and tourist value began to be appreciated, and things took an upward turn, mainly for the better. Today, the effects of the depression of recent years are starting to take a toll on the old town and a certain shabbiness is becoming evident once more.

Today's photograph shows the arch that leads from the Market Place into Prince Street, a curving cobbled road of three-storey houses dating from the 1770s. This row has kept the good looks of the most recent restoration. However, even here a dissonant note enters the view in the form of objects that weren't part of the street scene when I lived in the city. I mean, of course, those awful wheely bins. These wretched, multi-coloured, plastic rubbish containers too frequently blight our streets. A recent newspaper article illustrated one of the worst examples. One can only hope that such pieces open people's eyes to the degradation of our environment that follows from the insensitive siting of these bins.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 58mm
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/60
ISO: 200
Exposure Compensation:  0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Cobblestones

click photo to enlarge

"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone", as Joni Mitchell put it in her song, "Big Yellow Taxi". That's certainly true of cobblestones and setts (they are different but are popularly the same). In my youth there were many more cobbled roads to be seen. However, the needs of motor vehicles and their occupants resulted in many such roads and paths being taken up and replaced with smooth tarmac, others simply buried under the newer material. This was a gain for the posteriors of drivers and passengers, and doubtless improved the longevity of car suspensions, but there was a loss to the sense of place when this long-lasting surface disappeared. Eventually people realised what they had done and started to re-instate the popular cobblestones and setts.

As I moved around the country I came to realise that there were regional differences in the materials used as cobbles or for cobble-like road surfaces. Seaside towns often had sea-worn pebbles laid in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. In the Yorkshire Dales river-worn beck (stream) stones were commonly seen. Retangularly cut granite setts were used in Scotland, some northern towns and elsewhere if the heavy material could be cost-effectively imported. South coast towns often favoured flint nodules. When I lived in the Yorkshire city of Kingston upon Hull the High Street was paved with pitch-impregnated wooden setts.

Today many towns have uncovered their buried cobbles and setts and re-laid them. Some have put down new roads, paths and squares using local materials. However, many more have sought the durability and character of setts (in particular) by laying modern, concrete substitutes. These have the advantage of being cheaper whilst giving something of the appearance of the traditional road surface. Moreover, being flatter they make vehicular and pedestrian passage smoother. The disadvantage is that they rarely match original setts made of local materials, and they bring uniformity where regional difference would be preferable. It must be said, though, that they are a welcome break from the monotony of tarmac. Today's example shows some "new setts" in Stamford, Lincolnshire. I have to say that they look fine in this location. So much so that I took this "mouse's-eye view" of them with the backdrop of some of the town's old buildings.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 17mm
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation:  -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On