Marina Recreation Centre

The Marina Recreation Centre, in Kingston upon Hull, is a late 18th century shipping line office, built in 1872 by William Reeves of Hull. It was later converted into a recreation centre around 1980. The building is constructed of red brick with ashlar and brick dressings, and has a hipped and gabled slate roof. A distinctive feature is the rounded corner, topped with a weather vane in the form of a Wilson Line Steamer.

The exterior features a stepped plinth and modillion wooden eaves. The facade has recessed panels with dentilated heads, divided by pilasters. It has two storeys and a two-by-eight window arrangement, with a rounded corner featuring five windows. A central entrance bay to the rounded corner has a traceried round-arched two-light window with shafts; above it is a recessed panel containing a clock constructed by Wm Potts of Leeds in 1899, featuring a pin wheel escapement and compensating pendulum, and restored by D V Stipetic. Below the window is a round arched doorway with granite columns and steps with brass handrails, now with late 20th century double glazed doors and a fanlight. Two round-arched plain sashes flank the doorway, with pilasters, and below are two windows on either side with similar pilasters and flat heads, the furthest right window being now blocked. The left return, to Commercial Road, has two round-headed windows above and two flat-headed windows below. The right return, to Kingston Street, features eight tall round-arched margin glazed two-light windows, formerly part of the general office.

The interior boasts a moulded cornice with double modillions and a coved ceiling. There is an internal clock, driven by a single weight, with twin dials and a dead beat escapement, constructed by Thomas Reynoldson of Hull around 1872 and restored by D V Stipetic around 1980. The weather vane is internally linked to a compass dial indicating wind direction, also constructed by Thomas Reynoldson of Hull around 1872 and restored by D V Stipetic around 1980; it is the only surviving example of its kind in Hull.

The building originally served as the head offices for Thomas Wilson, Sons & Co., a leading steamship company in the late 19th century. The company dominated the transportation of migrants from Scandinavia, Germany, and Russia through Hull to America between the 1850s and 1914, handling an estimated 2.2 million migrants from 1836 to 1914.