30-33 Whitefriargate, Hull, Kingston upon Hull, City of Kingston upon Hull

Summary

Four late-C18 houses, now shops and offices, remodelled in late C19 with late-C20 and early-C21 alterations.

Description

Four late-C18 houses, now shops and offices, re-fronted in late C19 with late-C20 and early-C21 alterations. Classical and neo-Greek style.

MATERIALS: stucco and render, brick with ashlar dressings, slate roof.

PLAN: a polygonal building range which comprises a rectangular east-west aligned front range with an L-shaped extension (facing Princes Dock Street) to number 30, and early-C21 polygonal extensions to the rear.

EXTERIOR: the stuccoed three-storey front range, with attics, has main elevations to Whitefriargate and Princes Dock Street with a bull-nose corner to Beverley Gate. It has a hipped slate roof with nine sashed attic dormers (four facing north and south and one west), and four large coped and rendered off-set chimney stacks above a moulded eaves cornice. The upper floors all have moulded window surrounds with predominantly two-over-two sashes. Attached to the rear of number 33 (facing Princes Dock Street) is a late-C18 three-storey brick extension with a low-pitched hipped slate roof. There are single and two-storey flat-roof extensions to the rear of numbers 30 to 33.

The main (north) elevation to Whitefriargate has three ground-floor shopfronts, which include early-C21 shopfronts to number 30 to 32 (numbers 30 and 31 are amalgamated – 2021). Number 33 has an early-C20 Art Deco-style shopfront with pilasters supporting the shop fascia, which is ornamented with triglyphs below the brackets of the moulded cornice and moulded window mullions between plane glass and singlepane transom lights. In the lefthand bay is the covered passageway with Corinthian pilasters and large decorative brackets supporting an entablature and cornice decorated with the crest of Trinity House School. The twelve-bay upper floors are divided (left to right) by plain pilasters into one, three, six and two bay sections. On the first floor the window surrounds all have either moulded triangular pediments or moulded cornices supported on scrolled consoles. Above the passageway is a shortened window with a cornice; the three bays to the right have a pedimented central window flanked by windows with cornices; the central six bays have a central pair of windows under a wide pediment (supported on two pairs of scroll brackets) and to either side two windows with cornices; the two righthand bays have cornices with single pane windows. The second-floor windows are slightly smaller and have moulded window surrounds supported on bracketed sills.

The stuccoed right (west) return is in a matching style to Whitefriargate and comprises a four-bay elevation with a bull-nose lefthand corner and a three-bay elevation to Princes Dock Street. The bull-nose corner has a recessed and canted shop front entrance (number 33) which is supported on a pair of fluted early-C20 neo-Greek Doric columns. To each side of the glazed double entrance door with overlight is a plate glass window and transom light with moulded mullions. There are two similar shop windows facing onto Princes Dock Street with a single-pane Art Deco style window to the righthand bay with pilasters to either side. On the first floor the bull-nose corner has a single-pane window with a convex pediment supported on brackets and a plate glass window. To the right are three similar windows with a central pediment and cornices to the outer windows. The second floor has a convex window to the bull-nose corner and three windows to the right (the central window blind) all with two-over-two pane horned sashes.

Attached to the right is a late-C18 three-bay brick building (which became a rear extension to number 33 in the C19). The ground floor has two splayed flat arch brick windows, brick infilled to the left and with a stone sill and six-pane frame with a C20 top-light to the right. To each side is a door. The left door has a C19 wooden door surround with pilasters supporting a cornice and the right door has a late-C18 splayed brick doorway with a C20 door and three panelled over-light. On the first floor is an Edwardian four pane shop window (blind – 2021) with wooden pilaster mullions, five pane toplights and a fascia and cornice decorated with raised panels. The second floor has three C18 splayed flat arched brick windows (the left-hand window is blind).

The rear red brick elevation is partially concealed by a single- and two-storey utilitarian extension, erected in the 2000s, with two sets of external metal stairs up to the second floor. The second floor contains four residences (unused – 2021) with C21 entrance doors to numbers 30 to 32. Numbers 31 and 32 are both of two bays with hall aligned entrances and a flanking window and number 30 is of three-bays but with the C21 extension blocking a former window opening (infilled – 2000s). The windows have three-over-six pane sashes and splayed segmental arched heads. Number 33 has one three-over-six pane unhorned sash on the second floor. Above the passageway to Zebedee’s yard is a six-over-six pane horned sash window to the first and second floors. The C21 doorway openings have stretcher brick lintels and half-glazed panel doors. There are two C19 hoppers and one late-C18 to early-C19 fluted half-circular hopper.

INTERIOR: the principle interest in the interior lies in number 33 and the upper floors of numbers 30 to 32. The second floor and attics form four late-C18 residences each of three bays on two floors with two room deep floor plans. They have C19 adaptations with some early-C21 internal wall replacement and door infills. There are C18 and C19 floorboards throughout, a range of fixtures and fittings, and the attics retains C19 timbers (originally ceiled) with supporting C21 timbers. The apartment above number 33 is accessed from the shop floor whilst the three apartments above numbers 30 to 32 are accessed externally via stairs across the early-C21 rear extensions. The first- and second-floor rooms above the alleyway were not accessible.

NUMBER 33 (shop and residence): the shop has early-C21 dropped ceilings, wall cladding and floor coverings. The ground floor extends through to the adjoining late-C18 building on Princes Dock Street with staff rooms to the rear of the shop floor, a concrete rear stair in the small C21 extension and an exit for numbers 32 and 33 onto Princes Dock Street (2021).
The rear stair rises to a narrow landing with a western door into a C19 floor plan of three rooms. The northern room retains an early-C20 half-glazed and panelled two-leaf door and the southern room a wide Edwardian shop window (boarded – 2021) with a C19 chimney breast. Further features are concealed by C21 panels. Directly north of the stair, behind a C20 door, is a C19 landing and stair with blocked openings to the left of a chimney breast. The C19 double quarter winder stair with newel posts, square-cut paired balusters and plank wall panelling rises to a late-C18 moulded and panelled second-floor stair window and a second-floor landing. A western C19 door architrave (with C20 door) enters a central room with a late-C18 boxed winder attic stair positioned against the west wall (set behind the blind second-floor window looking onto Princes Dock Street). The stair has a C19 panelled stair door to the bottom and C19 newel posts with balusters and handrail up to the attic. The adjoining north room has an C18 door architrave and an infilled fireplace with a blocked door opening to its right (south). To the south of the central room is a short corridor leading into the adjoining extension via one step and a moulded C19 architrave with a four-panel door. The extension (former late-C18 building) contains a narrow room retaining a C19 stone lintel fireplace and a C19 plank panelled cupboard. A second C19 door architrave, with four-panelled door, leads to a larger southern room with a C19 fireplace, cupboard, skirting and infilled doorway. The attic stud wall partitions remain in-situ and contain a C19 four-panel door with a re-used C18 wooden door lock, three C18 plank and batten doors with C18 wooden door lock and an C18 six-by-six pane Yorkshire sliding sash. The north side of the attic has a C19 metal fire surround and grate.

NUMBERS 30-32: the shop floors on the ground floors of numbers 30 to 32 have early-C21 dropped ceilings, wall cladding and floor coverings. In number 30 and 31 the ground-floor extends the length of the C21 extension with a fire-exit to Zebedee’s Yard and a stair at the north-east corner. The first floor has an early-C21 floor plan, comprising store-rooms and a corridor with toilets. In number 32 a C21 concrete stair is positioned at the rear of the shop, behind a wall partition, with a door into the L-shaped late-C18 extension behind number 33. The first floor has a similar fit-out to number 30 to 31.

Number 32 (upper floors): the principal floor of the two-storey residence is accessed through a C21 door from the roof extension. It has C18 door architraves throughout. The current hallway (former stairwell) retains a C18 boxed winder attic stair with a plank and batten stair door with thin strap hinges (unattached – 2021), plank panelling, a shaped stair skirt-board, round nosed treads, and a partial C19 dog-leg stair (newels, balustrade and balusters). Beneath the C18 stair is an C18 plank and batten cupboard door with strap hinges and a wooden door lock. The north room has a blocked C19 doorway to the left of a chimney breast in the west wall and an C18 two-panel door with butterfly hinges and right-hand skeleton door latch (unattached – 2021). The west room contains a C18 fireplace surround.

Number 31 (upper floors): the floor plan is a mirror copy of number 32 with C18 boxed winder stair, partial C19 dog-leg stair and C18 door architraves. The north room retains an C18 plank panelled cupboard with plank and batten door and a Georgian wooden door lock, set within a roll-moulded architrave. The south room has an arched fireplace and the attic retains the boxed winder stair handrail and an early-C18 plank and batten door of two wide planks and top and bottom battens (unattached – 2021).

Number 30 (upper floors): the entrance room retains an C18 plank panelled cupboard with a roll-moulded cupboard door architrave, and an arched fireplace with grate and hearthstone. A mid-C19 wooden single-pane shop door and C18 architrave remain (unattached – 2021). The south room has a moulded C18 door architrave and to the right of the chimney breast (with stone hearth) is an C18 plank panelled cupboard with plank and batten door with butterfly hinges set within a roll moulded door architrave. There is no boxed winder to the attic which is now accessed through a ceiling hatch and contains a C19 four-panel door and two C18 blocked windows in the east gable end.

History

30 to 33 Whitefriargate is a corner building located on the south side of Whitefriargate at the junction with Princes Dock Street. It stands on land owned by Hull Trinity House, a religious guild established in 1369 that became a mariners’ guild in the mid-C15, and whose estate covers the majority of the former site of the Whitefriars (a Carmelite friary, founded in 1122 in Syria and established in Hull by around 1289). Hull Trinity House was originally a tenant of the Carmelites whose estate extended east from Trinity House Lane and north to south from Whitefriargate to Posterngate. With the dissolution of the monastery in 1536 the land transferred through several hands until Alderman Thomas Ferries transferred what remained (known as the Ferries Estate) to Hull Trinity House mariners’ guild in 1621. Hull Trinity House began to let out land on building leases, starting with the corner of Trinity House Lane and Whitefriargate, and 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 four shops and houses were erected in the late C18 when Hull Trinity House began developing blocks of houses on the south side of Whitefriargate. The three-storey gable ended building was built with shops to the ground floor and two-storey residences above, with windows to both gable ends. The eastern attic windows were infilled with the construction of 24 to 28 Whitefriargate with an enclosed passageway (Cock and Lion Entry) to give access to the Merchant Seamen’s Hospital behind. Attached to the rear of number 33, facing Princes Dock Street, was a late-C18 building of two terrace houses.

Throughout the C19 the shops were drapers, silk mercers, hairdressers and chemists. A mid-C19 newspaper advertisement shows a sketch of the building partially rendered with number 32 occupied by Woods Brothers (clothing outfitters) with the lettering ‘shirt makers’ between the upper floors. A photograph of 1869 shows the Woods Brothers in numbers 31 and 32 and the brick building unrendered with splayed keystone window lintels and a large steeply pitched gable end facing Prince’s Dock Street. By the late-C19 Woods Brothers also occupied number 33a. Rear extensions were gradually brought into the businesses’ extended shop floors and stores, with residences remaining on the upper floors. The 1886 Goad insurance plan shows the arrangement of shops, with residences above, and the extended shop floors with glazed skylights. Number 33 is shown extending on all floors into the adjoining late-C18 building, with an internal passage providing access to two- and three-storey brick extensions, with internal yards, to the rear of numbers 30 to 33.

Between 1884 and 1887 the shops and houses were substantially remodelled. Frederick Schultz Smith produced drawings of the building in around 1884, which show the former north and west elevations of the building during and after works. Smith often produced drawings to record buildings that were to be altered or pulled down, and his drawings suggest substantial alterations to the late-C18 range. The main elevations were remodelled with a bull-nosed north-west corner and a decorative scheme of moulded surrounds, triangular pediments and cornices applied to the upper windows in order to form a coherent design with other buildings on the south side of Whitefriargate. The pitched roof was also adapted with a hip to the west, outer corner, dormers and chimneystacks. In the late-C19 the passageway between number 28 and 30 Whitefriargate was re-named Trinity House Entry, becoming more recently the Cock and Lion Entry and Zebedee’s Yard (after Hull Trinity School headmaster Zebedee Scaping).

Between the 1920s and 1930s the ground-floor shop front to number 33 was remodelled in a neo-Greek style and a first-floor Edwardian shop window inserted into the late-C18 extension to form an inter-connected upper shop floor. The shop floors to numbers 31 to 33 remained in use by Woods Brothers, with a tailors at number 30, but were split into two separate shop units by the 1950s. Between 2000 and 2003 new shop fronts were installed to numbers 31 to 32 and the rear extensions behind numbers 31 to 33 were demolished and single and two-storey extensions built. At a similar time the roof was repaired and reinforced, with insertion of replica dormers and windows, and the rear was re-pointed.

Reasons for Listing

30 to 33 Whitefriargate is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a prominent three-storey corner building with late-C18 origins, remodelled in the late C19 with a unifying neoclassical design to the stuccoed main elevations;
* the upper floors retain their legibility and plan forms as two-storey residences with good-quality fixtures and fittings, including C18 attic stairs, plank and batten doors, architraves and panelled cupboards and C19 staircases, fireplaces, moulded cornices and architraves.

Historic interest:

* as one of the key buildings on the south side of Whitefriargate where the majority of the buildings were constructed in the late C18 and early C19 to provide Trinity House with a rental income from their Whitefriargate estate in addition to their shipping revenues;
* the 1880s remodelling of the main elevations demonstrated Trinity House's ongoing investment in its estate, which involved the selective renewal of the buildings providing the greatest financial returns;
* the building forms part of a group of carefully planned historic urban buildings which visually enhance and impart character to the streetscape of Whitefriargate and it provides the setting for the scheduled Beverley Gate, a key archeological monument to the part Hull Old Town played in the nation's civil war history.

External Links

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