The Polar Bear

The Polar Bear is a public house built in 1895 and extended and refitted in 1922, designed by the architects Freeman Son and Gaskell. It is constructed of brick with stone detailing to the ground floor main elevations and has a slate roof.

The building occupies an acute angled corner plot with a lobby entrance from Derringham Street. To the right of this entrance is a smoke room, and to the left is the main bar room, which extends the full length of the Spring Bank frontage including a four-bay single storey extension added in 1922, with a secondary entrance at its centre. A bar servery separates the two public rooms, and stairs to the rear lead up to domestic quarters above.

The ground floor features a continuous run of large windows separated by stone pilasters, interrupted only by the two entrances. These windows comprise a large lower single fixed light with paired eight-light inward tilting casements above. The ground floor is topped by a stone cornice, which on the four-bay extension on the Spring Bank frontage is continued by a stone parapet. The first floor of the main building is in brick with six over one light horned sash windows. At the rounded corner, a window is flanked by a pair of carved stone panels depicting an anchor, the sign of Hull Brewery. Above, rising from eaves level, is a carved stone pediment bearing the name "THE POLAR BEAR" with flanking festoons and scrolls. The roof is hipped to Spring Bank with a cross roof above the entrance on Derringham Street, the gable of which has a triangular oriel window. The attic is further provided with roof dormer windows containing paired four over four light sash windows. There are two tall brick chimneys.

The interior contains a long curving ceramic fronted bar counter by Doulton, dating to 1895, and fitted bench seating forming curved bays all along the Spring Bank frontage in the main bar room. The 1922 extension features a domed ceiling incorporating a stained glass top light. The rear bar or smoke room retains fitted bench seating. Panelled doors incorporate cut and frosted glazing.

The Polar Bear public house first opened in the 1840s at Carlton Terrace further east along Spring Bank, its name connected with the nearby Zoological Gardens. It moved to its current site in 1860 and was rebuilt in 1895 with modifications in 1911. In 1922 the Hull Brewery company refurbished the pub and added the single storey extension.

The building is of special architectural interest principally for the quality of its interior fixtures and fittings, including a ceramic bar counter front, one of only about 10 still surviving in England, complemented by good survival of features and interior fittings dating to the 1922 refurbishment.