Former Park Avenue Industrial School for Girls and Boundary Walls

Former Industrial School for Girls, Park Avenue, Hull

This is a former industrial school for girls, built in 1888 by architects William Botterill and John Bilson for the Hull School Board. It is designed in the Queen Anne style.

The building is constructed in fair-faced brick, predominantly laid in English bond, with shaped and moulded brick dressings and some stone dressings. The roofs are plain tile with red ridge tiles and cast-iron rainwater goods.

The overall plan is U-shaped. The principal range faces south and features cross wings at either end with a central projecting porch. To the rear of this south range is a 21st-century extension flanked by the original toilet blocks. The west arm of the U-plan consists of two parallel ranges: the southern part of the inner west range is a dining hall, while the ground floor of the northern part of the outer west range housed various storerooms with an infirmary on the first floor. A cross wing to the north served as a wash-house, dry closet and laundry. The east arm is similarly arranged but asymmetrically, with the southern part of the outer east range forming a hall and schoolroom, and the northern parts of both ranges together with a cross wing forming a play shed.

The main south elevation is symmetrical, two storeys and nine bays wide. It features a central projecting two-storey enclosed porch with a stone-dressed Dutch gable. Above the entrance is a first-floor window with a 9-over-9 pane boxed sash with a curved head, set beneath a moulded brick keystoned cambered arch with cornice. Below the window are two moulded stone string courses with a stone cartouche between them inscribed "KINGSTON-UPON-HULL / SCHOOL BOARD 1888". The ground floor has the main entrance with a round arched fanlight and moulded brick reveal, the fanlight flanked by stone consoles styled as urns supported on carved corbels. Three bays to either side of the porch contain paired windows: those to the ground floor match the porch entrance design, while those to the first floor lack individual cornices but share a continuous moulded brick string course. The projecting gables of the flanking cross wings have paired windows to each floor, with first-floor windows extending an additional 6-pane light into the gable head. The gable heads are formed with moulded brickwork as open pediments with dentilled cornicing framing brick cartouches. Above the junction between the main roof and each cross wing rises an ornate timber ventilation cupola with a stone or lead finial.

The west elevation is asymmetrical, with architectural detailing becoming progressively simpler towards the north and rear. It comprises a two-storey three-bay cross wing to the south, then a three-bay single-storey former scullery and larder range with the southern bay window extending into a full dormer, followed by a two-storey eight-bay range for storerooms and infirmary, and finally the two-bay gable end of the single-storey former wash-house and laundry. The side of the southern cross wing has three ground-floor windows detailed as on the south elevation. Its single first-floor window, made of multi-pane casements and fixed lights, extends into a full dormer with a corniced gable. Further north, string courses are omitted and windows have simple flat-arched lintels of rubbed brick without further embellishment.

The east elevation is similarly asymmetrical, with simplification of detail towards the north. It features a two-storey three-bay cross wing to the south, then a tall single-storey three-bay hall and schoolroom with two large windows extending into half dormers flanking a central window, and finally a blind tall single-storey play shed with a northern cross wing topped by a small timber ventilation cupola with pyramidal cap and ball finial.

The rear elevations show the central portion of the principal range's rear largely obscured by the 21st-century extension. Where visible, detailing is simple but retains a moulded brick eaves course. The play shed features wide segmentally arched openings to the north (now blocked), south and west, remaining as open arcades. The inner ranges of both east and west sides feature large skylights straddling the ridge-lines to light internal stairwells. The inner west range terminates short of the cross wing that formed the infirmary ward, the space between enclosed by a wall capped with railings to form a secure courtyard including toilets.

Internally, the building largely retains its original layout along with many original fixtures and fittings including six-panel doors (some with original brass door furniture and finger plates), internal windows for shared lighting, linen and other cupboards with brass catches, and numerous fireplace surrounds including the large chimney breast of the former kitchen and the room bell indicator near the main entrance. Some rooms have modern suspended ceilings, but the halls to the east and west sides and the large classrooms on the first floor of the cross wings to the principal range retain timber boarded ceilings with exposed arch bracing to the roof trusses. The first-floor classrooms in the cross wings retain large blocked fireplaces. Those to the main range retain part-glazed partitions, though detailing is generally simple. The committee room on the ground floor of the principal range, the matron's room (office), and the ward and matron's room within the infirmary are more finely detailed, all retaining fireplaces. Those in the infirmary are Galton grates. The dining hall extends to the side beneath an upper room using a cast-iron column supporting a timber beam. Similar cast-iron columns support the kingpost trusses of the play shed roofs.

The school and playground are enclosed on three sides by a cement-rendered pier and panel brick wall with stone copings. A low brick wall with moulded ashlar coping stones and three pairs of gate posts fronts the school facing south onto Park Avenue.

Boundary walls are included in the listing. The following 21st-century elements are declared not to be of special architectural or historic interest: the classroom extension to the centre of the rear elevation, concrete access ramps, lift, computer room server and associated equipment, central heating boilers, reception desk, late 20th-century toilet cubicles, suspended ceilings, and modern electrical fittings.