There have been many sarcastic jokes about the current UK City of Culture displaying less culture than an average Petri dish. But was Londonderry any better?
After all, it was in Hull that the bicentenary of Armitage Shanks and the centenary of Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain was jointly celebrated with a quirky exhibition. Then in September 2018, the art objects were auctioned off and it was both saddening and pleasant to see the low turnout. I was able to acquire some beautiful and in part thought-provoking pieces.
Then a more recent walk from Holderness Road to Pearson Park …
revealed some spectacular buildings, partly in rot, partly in demolition, partly bravely withstanding time and the elements.
The Grade II listed British Extracting Company building has been celebrated as a beautiful derelict building and explored from the inside in this video.
All this ambivalence about “culture”, however, simply drifts away when, one evening, you board Pride of Hull in King George’s Dock, and look back on the river, with the city and Humber bridge in the distance, waiting to sail off…
Lord Henry Wotton 
