Steve Regan: The Return of The King continued previous page

I see that the Endeavour School is now complete and functioning. I wish it well but I fear it will struggle. What Hull's schools need is not new building and fancy hi-tech facilities. Urgently, they need dedicated, high quality teachers and I am afraid there are precious few of them around.

The want of good or even adequate teachers is why Hull's schools continue to be among the worst performing in the UK. I hope the education authority, Hell City Council, feels suitably ashamed about blighting the lives of so many young people year after damnable year.

By the time I reached the Salvation Army building, it was 7.35 am. I was famished and had the mother of all headaches. I was hoping to get a bacon butty and a coffee at an old fry-up shack I used to use (next to the Strand barbershop), but it has shut (the greasy spoon not the barber).

And so on I plodded, pausing to admire the Sally Army's fantastic slogan which features on the wall in bas relief - Blood and Fire. I am a great admirer of the Salvationists. Every one of their officers makes this solemn promise: For Christ's sake, to care for the poor, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, love the unlovable and befriend the friendless. If that is not worthy of admiration in this era of greedy, selfish materialism and sneering cynicism then I don't know what is.

At the city centre end of Beverley Road is the Hull Daily Mail building, where I served out nearly two years of my life in penal servitude. Last weekend I spent much time socialising with quite a few of the paper's staff. They, like its readers, tell me my legendary column has been sorely missed in a paper that's become very bland since my departure.

The Mail building now has a spectacularly poor attempt at public art around its edges - a sort of provincial rock garden that could have been cobbled together by a myopic moron in a hurry.

Across the road from it is an even crapper display of public "art" - a beacon that I believe lights up at night, bordered by mosaic-covered humps. I am told this load of old cobblers is part of a grand scheme by city council leader Davros to turn Hull into the Venice of the north. Surbiton of the north, more like. When I think of all the public money that's been wasted by idiots in Hull who wear cog label badges, and talk about regeneration and hold endless meetings about it, but achieve nack all, well it makes me want to weep. Honestly, I could cry you a river. The mighty Humber itself.

So anyway, it got to be 8.10 am and I trundled along the Ferensway, gasping for a cuppa but there was nowt open. Shamefully, the front end of Paragon Station is still a filthy mess but I see work has started on the redevelopment of the area around the station and I note it is to be called the St Stephen's. I approve of the name but not the project. This site is the worst possible place in the city centre to put more shop units.

The result of the Ferensway development will be to hasten the demise of the New Town as a shopping area. It is hardly buzzing as things stand. Most people with money - i.e. those living out in the fake-posh west Hull villages - prefer to go to Meadowhall or even Leeds for shopping.

Until things improve in Hull who can blame them? Princes Quay is pants. Whenever I see it I think what a waste of those magical old town docks. Eventually I ramble round the side of the rail station and into Anlaby Road, pausing to admire the scenes of elegant living from the ancient world as depicted on the frieze on what is now an outpost of the University of Lincoln.

Why a college based in Hull - no mean city - should allow itself to be renamed in honour of Lincoln, a glorified market town, beats me. Have the people that run it no shame? You get a nice view from Anlaby Road of the domes and cupolas of City Hall and the old dock office (Maritime Museum).

Later I walked around the city centre till the subterreanean bogs opened in Vicky Square. The attendant told me I was breaking the rules by cleaning my teeth at the washstands there. Why, I wondered. Well, you might have AIDS or hepatitis, he told me, adding for good measure the unwanted advice, loitering for sex and wet shaving have been completely banned. Charming. As I wandered around the city centre and down by the marina, I was greeted by about half a dozen people unknown to be personally but who knew me from my picture that used to appear in the local paper.

One of the people who greeted me was Bob Carver near his Old Town chippy. Like everyone else, he reckoned the paper just wasn't the same without my regular scribblings. It is kind of him, and all the others to say that, but - hey! - the King is back ... on thisisUll.com, so rejoice! And until the next time, dear readers .. keep the faith, break the rules, make something beautiful every day if you can, and most of all .. try to win!

Columns - Steve Regan: the King of Hull's famous column
	AS some of you may have noticed - I'm back, back, BACK! My column has returned for the people of Hull, who have apparently missed it sorely since it disappeared from the Hull Daily Mail nearly two years ago. Even the Leader of Hell City Council, Colin Davros Inglis, has been complaining there are now no proper columnists locally to keep him and his Read more...

Columns - King of Hull by Steve Regan 15 April 2004
	OUR modern lives are plagued by pathological restlessness. We are never satisfied, always wanting to improve or change things or to move on to where we imagine the grass will be greener. This restlessness afflicts everyone to a degree. Do you know anyone who is perfectly contented, with his or her job, or lack of a job, emotional life, family circumstances or home? I recently met someone I hadn't seen for several years Read more...

Articles - My Mate Walters an Asylum seeker, From Cameroon By Rich Mills

	Walters is a black man asylum seeker in Hull, from Cameroon, the English speaking part, south of the country under persistent threat from the independent French speaking north population. Although the North has its independence, the south English speaking section is under constant threat of terror. He has lived here in Hull for four years, having Read more...

Articles - A Secret Revealed - The Hutt Street Party! 18th April 2004 By Rich Mills
	For many years I had heard of the myth of the Hutt Street Party. Spoke in whispers across the Avenues enclave for years, many had heard of it, quite a few had been to one, but still many it seems are in the dark. Basically it goes like this.. By word of mouth you get to hear about the party, which goes on in the house on Hutt Street. Hence the name! Read more...

Articles - Death On Camera By Nicholas Boldock
	I have just watched Death On Camera, the BBC documentary about Christopher Alder, who died in police custody in Hull in 1998. If you missed the programme and don't already know the case, here are the facts: Christopher Alder was in Waterfront Nightclub on the night of April 1st, 1998. There was an altercation inside the club Read more...

Articles - Made In Hull - Part One - Arundel Street Days By Maurice Fairfield

	My story begins in Arundel Street and wanders away to the shallow end of Holderness Road next door to the tram sheds and opposite the old Astoria Cinema, which was at that time the New Astoria Cinema. Then to Hedon for a time, then back to Arundel a couple of years before the outbreak of the war. Read more...

Articles - Digging Up The Past By Cilla

	Months ago we published an series of articles written by a man who was witness to the events in The Cod Wars. His name is John Boldock and his story is an honest account of what life was like for him as a young man in what were dangerous and terrifying times. After the story had been published on the site Read more...

Articles - Speed Dating By Ash Jamieson

	I've seen it. I've peeked down the rabbit's hole. A large group of people all looking for love in a pub on White Friar Gate. Great to watch, daunting to be a part of but on the whole, good fun all round. Speed dating, for those that have never witnessed the phenomena, is exactly what it sounds like. Dating at speed. A group of people split down Read more...

Articles - The Oscars 2004 By Steve Rudd

	The highlight of Hollywood's calendar, The Oscars seem to come around faster every year. Our man in LA to report back to Britain on proceedings was Film 2004 face Jonathan Ross who didn't do a bad job at all, but seemed hampered by his panel of three accompanying guests in the form of Welsh (supposed) funnyman Rob Brydon, and the impersonating duo of Ronni Read more...

Articles - World Book Day 2004 Event Review By Rich Mills

	It may not be the actual World Book Day 2004 until the 4th of March, and the 100th anniversary of Dr. Seuss being born on the 2nd of March, but Lifelong Learning at the city council held an event at the Ferens Art Gallery on this Saturday. The event which lasted from 10:00am until 3:00pm, was a day of workshops and great fun for the children and adults alike. Read more...