Bayles House, to rear of 44-45 High Street, Kingston upon Hull, City of Kingston upon Hull

Summary

House and offices, early-mid C18. Mid- and late-C19 or early-C20 alterations.
Danish Buildings of 1858, standing on High Street and attached to Bayles House by a rear extension, and the late-C19 or early-C20 extension to the original single-storey outshot to the rear of the main house, the late-C19 or early-C20 WC block, store and row of coal stores, all in the rear yard, do not form part of the listing.

Description

House and offices, early- mid-C18. Mid- and late-C19 or early-C20 alterations.

Danish Buildings of 1858, standing on High Street and attached to Bayles House by a rear extension, and the late-C19 or early-C20 extension to the original single-storey outshot to the rear of the main house, a late-C19 or early-C20 WC block, store and row of coal stores, all in the rear yard, do not form part of the listing.

MATERIALS: brick with slate roofs.

PLAN: an L-shaped building of two storeys with an attic and a small basement beneath the main stair hall and the adjacent service stair at the rear of the front range. The front range runs north-south, set back and parallel to High Street. The rear elevation has a small, single-storey outshot to the left (which was later extended* further into the yard; this late extension is excluded from the listing) and a full-height projecting stair hall to the right, attached to a long, narrower, rear range running east-west towards the River Hull, with a narrow, rear yard.

EXTERIOR: the building is constructed of narrow, hand-made bricks. Both the front range and the long rear range have irregularly-pitched slate roofs; the roof of the front range is lower to the west, front elevation; the roof of the rear range is lower to the north, rear elevation.

The front elevation has five first-floor bays. Bays one, two, four and five have flat-headed windows with gauged brick lintels with ashlar giant keystones and moulded ashlar sills, now painted white. The window frames are six-over-six pane unhorned sashes. The central bay has a later, canted oriel window with a slim timber frame and a timber sill. Above the windows is a timber eaves board and gutter. The ground floor has a central doorway with a gauged brick lintel with giant ashlar keystone painted white. The reeded and moulded ashlar doorcase has rosettes to the upper corners and contains a flattened, cast-iron, cobweb fanlight with wreathed rosettes to the spandrels, all painted white. The original door beneath has been replaced by a smaller, C20 half-glazed door with a shallow plain overlight. To the left is a large canted bay window of lighter orange, machine-made brick with a pitched roof with a modern covering replacing the earlier lead covering. It has three six-over-six pane unhorned sashes. To the right the ground floor has been covered by the extension to the south rear wing of Danish Buildings*.

The side elevations are blind. The rear elevation is rendered to the left-hand side with a first-floor, round-headed window to the far left. The ground floor on this side is covered by a single-storey, extended outshot, with a very tall, square, brick chimney stack (rebuilt) on the south side at the junction of the original outshot and later extension* (this later extension is excluded from the listing). The full-height stair hall projects out from the centre and right-hand side of the rear elevation. It is built of hand-made brick with a hipped, slate roof. At ground-floor level there is a doorway in the single-bay east elevation (in line with the front doorway) with a rebuilt, machine-made brick surround. There is a horizontal three-over-three pane, unhorned sash window beneath the eaves at the attic level. The single-bay, south elevation has a large Venetian stair window at first-floor level.

The long, south elevation of the rear range has two flattened arch window openings (both now blocked) visible at ground level at the left-hand end. On the ground floor there is a single window at the left-hand end, three windows to the centre, and at the right-hand end there is a window (formerly a doorway in 1952, but perhaps originally a window), with a blocked window at the right-hand end, obscured by a later store* built in the yard. The windows have segmental brick lintels and six-over-six pane, unhorned sashes. There are six similarly spaced, six-over-six pane windows with brick segmental lintels on the first floor. The second floor has shorter windows beneath the eaves. There is a single window at the left-hand end, three central windows, and a wider window at the right-hand end. This window has an unhorned sash frame with four horizontal panes-over-four horizontal panes. The other windows have three horizontal pane-over-three horizontal pane unhorned sashes.

The east gable wall has a blocked doorway at ground-floor level (obscured by a modern electricity sub-station*) and a blocked doorway at first-floor level (formerly opening into a demolished warehouse).

The yard is enclosed by tall, orange brick, rendered walls with a doorway in the east boundary wall. The single storey outshut* to the rear of the main house, the WC block*, store* and row of coal stores* are not included in the listing.

INTERIOR: the rear stair hall contains a timber open-well staircase which rises to the first floor. The lower flight rests on a curved supporting wall and the upper flight is cantilevered. The open-string stair has panelled soffits and turned, tapered column balusters with a swept, moulded handrail with a curtail step. There is a Vitruvian scroll wall band at landing height and the stairwell has moulded plaster wall panels with ears and shouldered architraves. There is a moulded cornice to a coved ceiling with a central roundel and flanking rectangles with foliage scrolls. The landing is lit by a Venetian window, the central light rising into the coved ceiling. Adjacent to the stair hall, at the west end of the rear range, is a narrow stair well containing a service stair. The timber dogleg staircase descends to the basement and rises to the attic. It is closed-string with turned, vase balusters and a ramped, moulded handrail with square newel posts.

The building retains moulded cornices and timber mantelpieces in a number of rooms in both the front and rear ranges; the north ground-floor room in the front range has a C19 marble mantelpiece with a decorative, cast-iron surround; the attic rooms have the remains of small fireplaces. The two first-floor rooms in the front range are mainly lined with reused C17 panelling, with moulded cornices. The attic rooms to the front range are divided by timber partitions, some of which are made of reused panelling. The room with the marble mantelpiece has the remains of an inserted, timber, spiral staircase (now floored over at first-floor level). It has a turned newel post and plain, stick balusters. The large, first-floor room in the rear range has a C19, cast-iron safe next to the chimney breast.

* Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act') it is declared that the Danish Buildings, the later extension to the original, single-storey outshot to the east side of the rear elevation of the main house (not including the very tall, square, brick stack), the store built against the rear range in the north-east corner of the rear yard, the single-storey WC block and row of coal stores in the rear yard, and the electricity sub-station are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

Bayles House is set back from the east side of the High Street, which winds north-south through the Old Town following the line of the River Hull, which lies immediately to the east. It was traditionally where merchants had their homes, with those on the east side with warehouses to the rear fronting onto private wharfs on the river, known at this point as the Old Harbour. Bayles House had a typical layout of a three-storey house with a long contemporary rear range, and a warehouse next to the wharf. The first known documentary evidence for the property dates from 1751, when it was described as ‘a house and accompting house, little yard or yards lying before the same house and the entry and fore door and passage leading from the High Street up to the same messuage’ (East Riding Registry of Deeds U410). It was thought to have been built in the late C17, but more recent analysis of the building fabric indicates a lack of structural remains of this date, although it does incorporate medieval brick and reused C17 timbers. The service stair is also of a type which was common from the late C17 but continued through the C18. It is now considered that it was built in the first half of the C18 and the main staircase, which is located in a projecting stair hall to the rear of the front range, supports this date.

The main entrance doorway has a cast-iron fanlight, which were introduced in the 1770s, suggesting that the door surround was a fashionable, later-C18 addition.

It is not known who built the property, but a 1772 survey plan by Page and Broughton shows that at the time the property was owned by a Captain Coats, who may have been an oil merchant. Bailey’s Northern Directory (1784) identifies a ‘Henry Coates & Co’ as Oil Merchant. In the C19 trade directories indicate that the property was used by a variety of occupants, although it is unclear in the pre-1858 entries whether this was just Bayles House, or whether there was also a building fronting the High Street pre-dating the Danish Buildings. R G Battle’s directories for 1806 and 1814 list Stephen Staniland, Spirit Dealer and River Broker at number 44, and in 1814 John B Tuke, Merchant, Commercial Agent & Broker is listed at number 45. By 1834, Pigot’s Directory lists Isaac Turner, agent for London Assurance, and George and Thomas Earle, merchants, mustard, whiting and Plaster of Paris manufacturers, both occupying number 44. By 1840 Earle was also listed as a slate roofing contractor; Welsh slate was just becoming widely available due to the rapid expansion of the rail network and it may have been at this time that Bayles House was given a slate roof, replacing the original flat tiles or pantiles. Additionally a canted bay window was added to the front elevation around this time.

In 1858 the architect William Botterill designed a separate building fronting the High Street for the Danish merchant Carl Christian Brochner, who settled in Hull for much of his adult life. He was a leading member of the Danish community, laying the foundation stone in 1870 for St Nicolai, the Danish Lutheran church on Osborne Street, also designed by Botterill. The building was built as offices and named Danish Buildings apparently in recognition of his heritage. Brochner was listed as a corn merchant, sharing the property with a number of other merchants and insurance agents, none of whom seem to have been Danish.

The 1885-1886 Goad Fire Insurance plan identifies both the Danish Buildings and Bayles House as ‘Offices’, with the rear range of Bayles House listed as ‘Offices & D(welling), and the warehouse identified as ‘Brockley’s Whse, apparently a misspelling of Brochner. During the last decade of the C19 or first decade of the C20 historic Ordnance Survey maps show that the Danish Buildings was extended eastwards on the south side to attach the building to Bayles House at ground-floor level, which resulted in the loss of part of the original front elevation of Bayles House. A single-storey extension was also added to the rear of Bayles House, and a number of outbuildings built in the rear yard. These replace a row of smaller sheds against the south side of the yard shown in 1893.

The warehouse was still shown on the OS map published in 1928, but had gone by 1951. It is possible that it was demolished after bomb damage during the Second World War. Its place is now taken by a flat-roofed, electricity sub-station. It was built around 2013 to power the adjacent, newly built Scale Lane swing footbridge. The office buildings of the adjacent property (number 47) on the south side were also demolished between 1928 and 1951 and most of the south gable wall of Bayles House was refaced with brick.

The front elevation of Bayles House had three dormer windows, which are thought to have been removed in the 1970s or 1980s. During 2000-2001 a restoration programme of work was undertaken; a very tall, brick chimney to the single-storey rear outshot of the front range was entirely rebuilt, and the original timber roof structures of both the front and rear ranges were replaced.

Reasons for Listing

Bayles House to the rear of 44-45, High Street, an early to mid-C18 property with mid- and late-C19 alterations, late-C20 alterations and early-C21 restoration, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as an C18 Hull merchant’s property, built of brick and standing on a narrow plot with a three-storey house and a contemporary long, rear range, originally with a warehouse fronting a wharf on the River Hull (warehouse now demolished);

* the main entrance has a reeded and moulded ashlar doorcase, with a fashionable, later-C18 cast-iron cobweb fanlight, illustrating the owner’s status;

* the interior notably has an enriched stair hall lit by a Venetian window with an open-well, timber staircase with turned, tapered column balusters and swept handrail with a curtail step, moulded plaster wall panels, and a moulded cornice to a coved ceiling with a central roundel and flanking, foliate panels;

* fixtures and fittings of interest also include a secondary, timber dogleg staircase with turned, vase balusters and ramped, moulded handrail with square newel post which descends to the basement and rises to the attic, and re-used C17 timber panelling in two first-floor rooms.

Historic interest:
* Bayles House is typical of the combined house and business premises built by merchants in the Old Town during the second half of C17 and the C18 when Hull’s economy was dominated by trading with the Low Countries, Scandinavia and the Baltic.

Group value:
* Bayles House has a functional group value with other merchants properties on the High Street, including Crowle House, 41, High Street (Grade II), Maisters House, 160, High Street (Grade I), and Blaydes House, 6, High Street (Grade II*). In addition it has group value with the adjacent warehouse at 42 and 43, High Street (Grade II) due to its close proximity.

External Links

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