The Maltings

The Maltings, Kingston upon Hull

Former brewery, now offices and flats. Built in 1867 by W Sissons for the Hull Brewery Company, Limited. Converted around 1988. The building is constructed in red and some yellow brick with painted ashlar dressings. It has gabled and hipped slate roofs with various stacks and ventilators.

The plan consists of two parallel ranges with double span cross wings forming a courtyard. The main facade faces north onto Jarratt Street, with a further parallel range on the south side fronting Silvester Street, connected to the main body by an overhead bridge.

The main block rises five storeys with three-storey wings, featuring a plinth, fifth-floor lintel band, bold modillion cornices, and coped gables with rusticated brick quoins. It is arranged in 4:6:4 bays. The roof is half-hipped and topped with a domed octagonal wooden lantern with a coppered ogee roof, and the wings have hipped roofs. Ground-floor windows have round arches with keystones, while upper floor windows have flattened segmental heads, also with keystones. All windows are paired. The main block has three-light casements on the lower floors with louvred panels in the ground-floor windows, and smaller two-light casements on the fourth floor. The fifth floor features continuous wooden framed cross casements with a central double loft door. Five louvred half dormers project from the central block. The wings have similar fenestration, with unglazed windows to the left wing first floor and two-light casements to the second floors.

The inner courtyard at the rear of the main block has plywood panels to fourth-floor level, with windows above similar to those on the main frontage. There are alterations and blocked openings to the left end. To the right are the gable ends of the truncated double-span cross wing. The west side of the courtyard has three floors with plywood panels covering the right-hand end. A door to the left has two pairs of round-arched windows. The first floor has a bow window above the door with an elliptical-arched window to either side, smaller pairs of windows to the right, and a loading door in the centre. The south side of the courtyard has three storeys plus a nine-light transomed roof dormer. The ground floor has a carriage entrance to the right and elliptical-arched windows, with pairs of smaller windows to the upper floors. The east side of the courtyard is open to the centre, with truncated projecting cross wings and an eastward extension of the south side in similar style.

On the south side facing Silvester Street, to the left is a three-storey block with four paired windows with depressed segmental heads and diamond keystones. Above are four smaller similar windows without keystones, and above again, two square hipped louvred ventilators. The ground floor, altered in the late 20th century, has to the left an elliptical-arched carriage opening with imposts and diamond keystone, and to the right, two paired round-arched windows with imposts and diamond keystones.

To the left is a yellow brick warehouse of four floors across three bays. The ground floor has a 20th-century vehicular access across the entire front. Above, each floor has a central loading door flanked by segmental-arched windows with alternate red and white voussoirs. The hipped roof has a dormer loading bay to the left obscured by an adjacent block.

Further to the left is a former malting house in yellow brick with an ashlar ground-floor facade and bold ashlar quoins, arranged across three bays with three storeys plus a basement. It has a central double doorway with a round arch, chamfered jambs, and a faceted rusticated arch. Flanking the doorway are matching windows with red brick panels below. The upper floors each have round-arched loading doors and flanking round-arched windows, all with red brick voussoirs. The top-floor loading door has a carved keystone. The left return is six windows deep, all blocked, with basement windows at pavement level.

To the right is a slightly lower block of three storeys plus attics with five pairs of segment-headed windows with keystones. Between the second and third pair is a blocked single window with a similar head and keystone. Above are five pairs of smaller windows without keystones. Above again is a gabled slate-hung penthouse with two 20th-century windows. Below, to the left, is an elliptical-arched carriage opening with rusticated quoins, imposts, voussoirs, and a keystone carved with a scrolled anchor. To its right are three large segment-headed two-light windows with imposts and diamond keystones, featuring a central wooden mullion and toplight. To their right is a moulded segment-arched doorway.

Further to the right is a three-storey block with similar fenestration, featuring four paired first-floor windows and four large ground-floor windows. The left-hand second-floor window has its right light replaced by a wrought-iron bridge with traceried cast-iron brackets, a gabled roof, and round-arched glazing-bar side lights. On either side of the bridge, the brewery's name appears in raised lettering, flanked by roundels with anchors. Beyond this is a three-storey block with similar fenestration, featuring five paired windows on the upper floors. Below is a 20th-century door flanked by two pairs of round-arched windows with imposts and diamond keystones. To the right is an elliptical-arched carriage opening with imposts and keystone, reglazed as a three-light cross casement.

The north-facing range on the south side of Silvester Street begins to the left with a four-storey block featuring a plinth, impost band, moulded first-floor band, and pilasters to each bay on the upper floors. It spans eleven windows across the elevation. The second and third floors have segment-headed wooden cross casements, those to the second floor with shaped brick aprons. In the sixth bay is the bridge linking to the north block. Above are eleven two-light mullioned casements with glazing bars. Below are two segment-arched carriage openings with hoodmoulds, keystones, and voussoirs, containing doors with side and top lights. To the left is a plain segment-arched opening with a transomed three-light wooden cross casement. To its left are two round-arched three-light cross casements with voussoirs, hoodmoulds, and double keystones. To the right is a similar window, then a similar window converted to a door with fanlight, then a similar blocked opening with fanlight.

To the right again is a block with identical fenestration spanning five windows. The ground floor has a 20th-century segment-headed door with side and top lights, flanked by round-headed three-light cross casements. To the right is a carriage opening with double keystone, voussoirs, and hoodmould, containing a glazed double door with side and top lights.