Newland Homes Francis Reckitt House

Newland Homes, Francis Reckitt House is an infants' home built in 1897, funded by Francis Reckitt. The building is constructed of yellow brick with ashlar dressings and features slate roofs with four external gable stacks and two ridge stacks, all of which are coped.

The exterior includes a plinth, a ground-floor lintel band, and a first-floor sill band, along with traceried bargeboards with collars on the main gables. It is two storeys high and has a five-window range. Most windows are stone mullioned and transomed casements. The central recess features a two-light window, with a two-light mullioned window to the left that has an inscribed and dated panel above it. To the right, there is a half-glazed door with a mullioned overlight. The flanking wings have a single cross casement and below them, a canted hipped brick bay window with a three-light cross casement. Beyond these, on either side, there is a set-back bay with a small window above and a narrow transomed window below. At the rear, there are two gabled wings.

This complex of orphan homes and ancillary buildings was constructed between 1895 and 1902 by the Port of Hull Society, with funding from various benefactors, and it commemorates the Royal Jubilee of 1897. The Port of Hull Society for the Religious Instruction of Seamen was founded in 1821 and established the Sailors’ Orphans Institution in 1836. However, it 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.