Former Neptune Inn and two attached houses, Numbers 10-15 Whitefriargate, Kingston upon Hull, City of Kingston upon Hull

Summary

Former hotel and attached houses, subsequently offices, now (2020) shops, 1794-1797 by George Pycock for Hull Trinity House. Late C19, 1920, mid-C20 and late-C20 additions and alterations.

Description

Former hotel and attached houses, subsequently offices, now shops, 1794-1797 by George Pycock for Hull Trinity House. Late C19, 1920, mid-C20 and late-C20 additions and alterations.

MATERIALS: brick with painted ashlar dressings and hipped, gabled and mansard slate roofs.

PLAN: the building has a main block with slightly projecting end pavilions and a central carriage arch through to the rear, with a lower house forming a flanking wing on each side. There are projecting ranges to the rear. The main block has a large, central, double-height assembly room on the first floor. The ground floors all have shops; the ground floor of the main block and left wing have been opened up into a larger open space.

EXTERIOR
The building stands on the south side of the street, opposite the junction with Parliament Street, which runs north from Whitefriargate. The front elevation of the main block is of four storeys (three storeys to the double-height assembly room), plus an attic. It is built of brick in Flemish bond with a brick parapet and a hipped slate roof and is of seven bays with the outer bay on each side forming a slightly projecting end pavilion. The first floor has a corbelled sill band and above second-floor level is a dentillated cornice with a central tablet flanked by relief sculpted blocks and incorporating triangular pediments to the two end pavilion bays. Above is a parapet with ramped moulded coping and a raised central relief-sculpted panel depicting the arms of Trinity House, ribbon and two oak branches. The block is set on a corbelled sill band.

The central bay on the ground floor has a segmental-arched carriage entrance with a rusticated surround and a giant keystone carved with a mask of Neptune and a moulded cornice over supported on scrolled brackets at each end. The remainder of the ground floor has late-C20 shop fronts. The central five bays on the first and second floors are the location of the assembly room. The central bay has a large round-arched recess with a gauged brick head. Within the recess is a Venetian window with engaged Doric columns and quarter pilasters and a pseudo-balustrade with shaped balusters. On either side are two round-arched twelve-pane sashes with moulded heads. Over each of these windows is a sunken rectangular panel with relief sculpture. The end pavilions have large round-arched recesses with brick pilasters, moulded imposts and gauged brick heads. Within each recess is a tripartite sash window on the first floor with pilasters and a cornice and a Diocletian window with moulded head above at second-floor level. The third-floor level has a central tripartite glazing bar sash window with a flat head of gauged brick. To each side are two six-pane sashes with segmental heads of gauged bricks. The end pavilions each have two round windows. Set back behind the parapet, the entire main block has a hipped, slate roof, with two dormer windows above the second and sixth bays, each with a tall, brick stack adjacent to their outer side, with another tall, brick stack at the right-hand end. There is also a dormer window to both side elevations.

The front elevations of the flanking side wings (former houses) are each of three bays and three lower storeys and attics. The parapets have moulded copings. The left wing has three windows with flat heads of gauged bricks on the first floor and three smaller windows with similar gauged brick heads and stone sills on the second floor. The first-floor windows have sashes with two square panes over two rectangular panes. The second-floor windows have three-over-six pane sashes. The ground floor has a late-C20 shop front. The right wing has three similar second-floor windows. The first floor has a late-C19 shop facade with three large round-headed windows with small-pane glazing with pilasters between them. On either side is a panelled pilaster carrying a fascia with scroll brackets and a dentillated cornice. The modern shop front on the ground floor is flanked by panelled pilasters.

The rear elevation of the main block has four projecting bays to the centre with a recessed bay on each side with ramped parapets. The third bay of the projecting bays has a segmental-arched carriage entrance with a giant keystone. The windows in the projecting bays have flat heads of gauged bricks and stone sills. Above the carriage entrance is a tall, first-floor stair window with a six-over-nine pane sash frame. The other first-floor windows have six-over-six pane sashes, the first-floor windows have three-over-six pane sashes and the second-floor windows have three-over-three panes sashes, with two dormer windows to the roof. The recessed bays are largely obscured by projecting ranges, but the upper windows are round-headed.

The east projecting range is of three bays and two storeys with an attic storey. It is built of brick in Flemish bond with a slate mansard roof with moulded timber eaves cornice. The west elevation faces into the courtyard and has blocked ground-floor windows retaining gauged brick heads. There are two modern openings. The first floor has three large windows with tripartite timber frames, with three dormers above. Built against the south gable wall is a two-storey, single-bay, flat-roofed electricity sub-station. To the right is a single-storey L-shaped brick building. The west and north elevations face into the yard and have a stone plinth and parapet of modern bricks. The west elevation has a small paired window set into a round-headed recess with soldier bricks and a doorway to the right with steps up and a rectangular overlight with a gauged brick head. The return, north elevation has a wide, segmental-arched recess with a giant keystone and impost band. It contains a large segmental-arched window with a mullion and transom frame and stone sill band. The right-hand corner projects slightly. The west gable is blind with a stepped parapet and tall brick stack. The outer, south elevation has a stepped parapet. To the left is a six-over-six pane sash window with gauged brick head. Towards the right is a doorway and two similar windows, though with less well-formed brick heads.

The west projecting range is of five bays and two storeys. It is built of machine-made brick with sandstone dressings and a pitched slate roof with three brick ridge stacks. The slightly projecting second bay has a round-headed doorway framed by alternating brick and stonework with a moulded giant keystone. The doorway has double doors with fielded panels and a tripartite fanlight over. The ground-floor windows are round-headed with moulded giant keystones. The flat-headed first-floor windows have moulded stone frames. The window over the doorway has an ashlar stone surround with two cartouches, one with the date 1794, the other with the date 1920. At the right-hand end is a small, single-storey, flat-roofed infill building abutting the rear wall of the main block. At the left-hand end is a recessed bay with a single-storey, flat-roofed section with a small window abutting a two-storey, pitched roof section with a partially chamfered corner and a first-floor window. The window and door openings in the south gable wall have gauged brick heads.

INTERIOR
The interior of the main block and the left wing (No 10) were inspected. The interior of the east rear range was partially inspected. The right wing (No 15) and the west rear range were not inspected internally.

The interest of the interior lies primarily in the upper floors as the ground floors have been altered for retail use with the loss of many original fixtures and fittings. On the first floor of the main block the double-height assembly room has Adam style plasterwork with an enriched modillion cornice and a coved ceiling with a delicately detailed tripartite plaster ceiling. The south wall has a central round-arched recess and the east and west end walls each have two recesses with semi-elliptical heads, all with enriched plasterwork detailing. Between the end wall recesses are oval wall panels with vine enrichment. The two doorways in the southern, end wall recesses have enriched door cases with friezes and cornices and six fielded-panel doors. A number of first-floor rooms retain moulded cornices, some of which continue between modern sub-divisions, and windows with fielded-panel shutters and soffits. At the west end of the main block is a stair hall, though the staircase at this level has been removed. Towards the east end, in the left wing, is a stair hall with an enriched cornice and an open-well, ramped timber staircase. Between the first and second floors the staircase has slender, turned balusters, decorative tread ends and a moulded, ramped handrail. The large stair hall to the centre rear of the main block has a modern staircase.

The second-floor fixtures and fittings include moulded cornices, a number of six fielded-panel doors with moulded timber architraves and panelled window shutters, soffits and aprons. The north-west room in the main block has a fireplace with a hob grate and a simple, moulded timber chimneypiece. The stair hall at the west end of the main block has an open-well timber staircase with a swept moulded handrail, slender, turned balusters and decorative tread ends. The staircase now rises between the second floor and attic (the staircase between the first and second floors has been removed). The intermediate and upper newel posts are turned columns; the second-floor newel post has been replaced. At the east end of a longitudinal corridor in the main block is a closed-string staircase rising between the second and third floors. It has a moulded, ramped handrail and slender, turned balusters. The left wing staircase continues up to an attic. Between the second floor and attic it has a closed string with slender turned balusters and a moulded, ramped handrail. The attic has four fielded-panel doors.

The third floor in the main block has rooms to each side of a spine corridor opening into a stair hall at each end. Fixtures and fittings include moulded cornices, six fielded-panel doors and moulded architraves and panelled window shutters, soffits and aprons. The wide, central window to the front elevation has a window seat and deep soffit with a central timber column. At either end of the corridor is a wide doorway with a fielded-panel and part-glazed, segmental-arched door with a fan over-light. There are several fireplaces with timber chimneypieces and arched grates; the large south-west corner room has an early-C19 chimneypiece with reeding and bulls-eye details. The walls in this room also retain stencilling to the walls above a reeded dado rail. In the south-east corner of the corridor is a simple dog-leg staircase with timber treads rising to the east end of the attic. The larger west staircase rises to the west end of the attic.

The attic has a hipped roof with a raised roof structure. There are five machine-sawn king-post trusses with raking struts. The tie beams are supported on posts with raking struts connecting them to lower, outer posts. There are two tusk-tenoned purlins to each side with closely-spaced battens. There are two small casement dormer windows to each side and one at each end.

History

Hull’s Trinity House mariners’ guild derived its revenues both from shipping and from the rents of their Whitefriargate estate, bequeathed to the House in 1631. There was an on-going renewal of buildings in the estate, with properties selected for redevelopment when their income would show the greatest improvement in financial returns. The climax of this policy was the decision, first discussed in 1791, to replace a block of old property with a new inn and two handsome houses. By the time the notice given to existing tenants had expired England had been at war with France for two years and the rapid growth in Hull’s prosperity as a port had been severely checked. However, the Board pressed on with the project, designed by George Pycock in 1794 to 1797; the Neptune Inn was advertised in 1795 and the houses were let in 1796. His design emphasised the grand, first-floor banqueting or assembly room with arched windows and a central Venetian window, the arched theme repeated in end pavilions. The flanking houses were simply designed, though taller than their neighbours.

The Neptune Inn was never a great financial success due to the economic climate and in 1815 it became the Custom House, a role it would retain until 1913. An 1823 description stated that the former assembly room was used for the transaction of general official business of the custom house, and that the building also contained spacious offices for every department. By the mid C19 there were shops on the ground floor. No 15 retains a late-C19 shop façade. The 1:1056 Ordnance Survey map published in 1856 shows the Custom House with a rectangular courtyard to the rear enclosed by side ranges and a rear range with a covered cart entrance. The single-storey, L-shaped building in the south-east corner appears to be an altered remnant of this layout; the covered cart entrance is no longer in evidence, though its initial presence indicates that the rear range buildings were originally of at least two storeys.

A drawing of around 1883 by Frederick Schultz Smith (Hull Museums collections, accession number: KINCM:1929.130) shows the street elevation of the building. At this time the left-hand house had become Metcalfe's chemists shop. The ground floor of the Custom House is shown with tripartite windows in the outer pavilions, similar to those above on the first floor, and two tall, rectangular sash windows on each side of the central carriage entrance. The drawing does not show a wall post box, but at an unknown date in the C19 a Victorian wall post box was inserted into the inner pilaster of the left-hand outer pavilion.

At the rear of the building the east side range was altered in the late C19 and mid-C20 with a slate mansard roof. On the west side of the rear courtyard is an extension dated 1920.

In the 1930s Boots took over the lease of the building, remaining there until 2019. Plans from 1960 suggest that the ground floor of the main block and left house was opened out at this time with original brick walls replaced by steel columns supporting the upper floors. It is likely that the present shop fronts with plastic fasciae date from around this time.

Reasons for Listing

The former Neptune Inn and two attached houses, 10-15 Whitefriargate, 1794-1797 by George Pycock for Hull Trinity House, with late C19, 1920 and late C20 additions and alterations, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* architect designed with an impressive, symmetrical front elevation emphasising the grand first-floor assembly room above a central carriage entrance, topped by a relief-sculpted panel with the Trinity House coat of arms, flanked by end pavilions and a lower house forming a flanking wing on each side;

* the double-height assembly room is enriched with a tripartite, coved ceiling of delicately detailed Adam-style plasterwork of the highest quality, and the upper floors retain much of their original layout and many good-quality fixtures and fittings, including staircases, fireplaces, moulded cornices, six-fielded panel doors, moulded architraves and panelled window shutters, soffits and aprons.

Historic interest:
* as one of the principal buildings on the south side of Whitefriargate where the majority of buildings were constructed in the late C18 to provide Trinity House with a rental income from their Whitefriargate estate in addition to their shipping revenues;

* the building was an important component of the urban planning of Whitefriargate, providing an impressive termination to the view down the newly constructed Parliament Street linking Whitefriargate with the new Queen’s Dock (now Queen’s Gardens) to the north.

Group value:
* the Grade II* building is one of the principal buildings on Whitefriargate, standing in close proximity to the many Grade II-listed buildings on Whitefriargate and opposite the south end of Parliament Street, also with many Grade II-listed buildings, together combining to impart the historical character of this part of Hull Old Town.

External Links

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