University Of Hull Cohen Building

The University of Hull Cohen Building, located on Cottingham Road in Kingston upon Hull, was constructed in 1928 by the architectural practice WA Forsyth & Partners. It is built of brick with ashlar dressings and features hipped plain tile roofs and flat copper roofs with four coped brick ridge stacks. The building is designed in the Neo-Georgian style.

The structure comprises two storeys plus attics and is arranged on a square plan with an inner courtyard. It measures approximately 14 by 11 windows in extent. The south, west, and east fronts are characterised by projecting end pavilions with shallow pilasters and angle pilasters, with rusticated quoins to the ground floor. A moulded plinth and first-floor band run across the building.

The main entrance front faces west and displays seven three-light windows with a single-light window to the left, and eight hipped dormers with three-light windows above. The entrance itself is marked by an off-centre round-arched carriage opening, flanked by four three-light windows to the right and three to the left. The pavilions on each floor contain a three-light window flanked by two-light windows, with hipped dormers above containing three-light windows.

The south front has a central range with a two-light window flanked by single-light windows and two further three-light windows on each floor. Above sit two dormers with two-light windows flanked by pairs of dormers with three-light windows. The pavilions follow the pattern established on the main front, though the left pavilion includes a dormer with a three-light window.

The east front contains eight three-light windows, with the fifth being blank, and seven hipped dormers with two-light windows above. To the right is a box dormer with an altered three-light window. The ground floor of the east front comprises single-storey buildings enclosing a small yard. The left pavilion contains two twenty-light windows on each floor, whilst the right pavilion has a three-light window to the left on each floor and a blank to the right, with a box dormer above containing a five-light window.

The rear elevation to the north features a projecting centre with five three-light windows on each floor and a box dormer above containing an eight-light window. The left range has a three-light window flanked by two-light windows on each floor, with a four-light window and a single-light window to their right. Two box dormers with six and eight lights sit above. The right range displays two single-light windows followed by four three-light windows on each floor, with two box dormers containing six and eight lights above.

Beneath the carriage entrance are a segment-headed double door to the left and a similar single door to the right. Inside the courtyard, the west side features two triple windows on each floor flanking the arch, with the third window reduced in height and four dormers above containing three-light windows. The south side of the courtyard has a central range with a central three-light window flanked by two-light windows, separated by pilasters, with three dormers above containing two-light windows. Below are three round-arched glazed openings. Beyond on either side are extruded corners rising three storeys plus attics, each with two two-light windows per floor and a box dormer containing a two-light window. The south-west window has been replaced by a door.

The east side of the courtyard contains four three-light windows on each floor, the fourth with a glazed door inserted, and a single window to the right. Above are a seven-light box dormer to the left and two hipped dormers to the right.

The north side of the courtyard features a projecting centre, raised in the late twentieth century to four storeys plus attics with a three-window range. The central ground-floor windows are blocked and altered, with three through-eaves dormers above. On either side is a range with a central two-light window beneath a round-arched raised panel, flanked by single-light windows one above another, with a hipped through-eaves dormer above. Below is a segment-arched double doorway with hoodmould and half-glazed doors, flanked by single windows one above another. The upper inside windows are blank.

The windows throughout are predominantly wood-framed mullioned and transomed casements with leaded glazing, though some have been partly re-glazed.

The building was constructed as the Earth Sciences Building for what was then the University College of Hull. The University College was jointly endowed by TR Ferens, a well-known Hull philanthropist, and the City of Hull, and became a full university in 1954. The building forms part of a group with the Grade II listed University of Hull Venn Building (formerly the Administration Block), also designed by WA Forsyth & Partners.