Newland Homes James Reckitt House

James Reckitt House is an infants' home built in 1896, funded by Sir James Reckitt. The building is constructed of yellow brick with ashlar dressings and features a slate roof with four coped external gables and a single ridge stack.

The exterior includes a plinth, a ground-floor lintel band, a first-floor sill band, and bracketed eaves. The main gable is adorned with traceried bargeboards and collars. The structure is two storeys high and has a six-window range. The windows are plain sashes, with a projecting centre that features a pair of sashes topped by a shaped, moulded lintel and an inscribed datestone bearing the name of the benefactor. Each return angle has a single sash, and on either side, there are two additional sashes. Below, there is a hipped square bay window with two sashes, flanked by smaller sashes. To the right, a hipped porch canopy supported by turned wooden posts covers a half-glazed door and a single sash, with another sash to its right and a single sash to its left. Additionally, there is a triangular hipped bay window with two sashes. At the rear, the building has two gabled wings.

Historically, this complex of orphan homes and ancillary buildings was constructed between 1895 and 1902 by the Port of Hull Society, which was founded in 1821. The society established the Sailors’ Orphans Institution in 1836 but did not have a permanent home until the Park Street orphanage was built in 1868-1869, largely funded by Sir Titus Salt of Saltaire. The Park Street orphanage was sold in 1897, by which time all the children had been moved to the new complex on Cottingham Road.