Former Park Avenue Industrial School for Girls and Boundary Walls

Summary

Industrial School for Girls, opened in 1888, designed by William Botterill and John Bilson for the Hull School Board.

Reasons for Designation

The former Park Avenue Industrial School for Girls and Boundary Walls, Park Avenue, Kingston upon Hull, erected in 1888, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural Interest: a good Queen Anne design by prominent Hull architects William Botterill and John Bilson, with quality materials and detailing. Its unusual dual residential and educational function is evident in its design;
* Historic interest and rarity: a rare survival of a purpose-built industrial school that contributed to liberalisation of Victorian social policy;
* Degree of survival: the building is relatively intact both externally and internally, and retains much of its original appearance and internal room layout. Fittings and fixtures survive well throughout the building and a hierarchy of treatment of the quality of the materials used is evident internally.

History

Small numbers of industrial schools were established nationally in the second half of the C19 under the provisions of the 1857 Industrial Schools Act and its subsequent amendments. These provided basic education and vocational training to children aged 9-16 years, detained by magistrates, typically for vagrancy or minor offences, with some ‘out of control’ children being referred by their parents or guardians. The 1870 Education Act gave local School Boards the power to establish Industrial Schools alongside the more mainstream board schools. Various forms of training were given, and in the case of girls this took the form of a basic education and instruction in domestic skills, providing opportunity to obtain work as domestic servants and cooks. At some industrial schools, laundry was taken in from the surrounding community to provide an income stream.

The Park Avenue Industrial School for Girls was designed by the prominent Hull architects William Botterill and John Bilson for the Hull School Board, and it was completed in 1888. The land was purchased for £522 7s 0d and the school was built at the then un-developed western end of the Westbourne Estate by T Southern for £7,202 15s 0d; the School Board having chosen the site, probably with an eye to the future placement of girls into domestic service as the housing estate grew. The total cost including the furnishings, equipment and sheets was financed by a loan from the Public Works Committee at 3% per annum. At the time of its opening, the staff consisted of the Matron Miss Mary E Babb, a certified teacher Miss Reeve, and Mr and Mrs Ombler, the gardener and Industrial Trainer respectively. The Matron's log book entry on the 28 June 1888 records '32 girls were transferred from the temporary school at Elmfield House to the new school in Park Avenue'. A short time after the school was built, an adjacent dormitory (since demolished) was completed to house sixty-five girls, later increased to seventy-five. The school's capacity was also increased by raising the height of the E and W cross-wings, to accommodate additional schoolrooms. Certain features mark this school out as being different from the other board schools; the most obvious being the single entrance reflecting the fact that it was a 'single sex' establishment, the presence of an infirmary indicating the residential nature of the school and the unusually large covered play shed, which is thought to have doubled as a laundry drying shed. The U-plan layout of the school was designed to limit the possibility of children escaping and originally it had an inner, enclosed play yard with a wall that spanned the gap between the laundry and the covered play shed. Mainstream board schools had separate boys' and girls' entrances, internal sub-division between boys' and girls' classrooms, separate playgrounds, and no residential accommodation or infirmaries.

The main elevation is symmetrical and lavished with Queen Anne-style architectural detailing, which is continued around to the sides, although diminishing to the rear when out of public view. There is a similar hierarchy of treatment to the interior with the former matron's room and the committee room having plastered walls, cornices, moulded skirting-boards, and decorative fireplaces; the classrooms and corridors have glazed bricks to dado level, plaster above (now painted) and some with plain skirting-boards; the service rooms have plain brick walls.

By the 1919 Ordnance Survey map, the school's use had changed, being marked as a 'Cripple Children's School'. This only occupied the ground floor, and in 1932 the upper floor became occupied by the junior branch of the Kingston upon Hull Art College. During the Second World War a Civil Defence unit was based at the school. Post-war the school continued to be used by the Art College, and this arrangement continued until 1963 when the building became an in-service teacher training centre. In 1986 it became the Avenues Adult Education Centre, which closed in 2015. Alterations to the site include the loss of the cast-iron railings and gates during the Second World War, the truncation of three chimneys and the addition of a flat roofed C21 extension to the rear of the main range.

Details

Former Industrial School for Girls, 1888, by William Botterill and John Bilson for the Hull School Board. Queen Anne-style.

MATERIALS: fair-faced brick mainly in English-bond. Shaped and moulded brick dressings with some stone dressings. Plain tile roofs with red ridge tiles and cast-iron rainwater goods.

PLAN: U-plan overall: the principal range is to the S and has cross wings at either end and a central porch, all slightly projecting. Projecting to the rear of this S range is the C21 extension* flanked by the original toilet blocks. The W arm of the U-plan is formed by two parallel ranges, the S part of the W (inner) range being a dining hall, the ground-floor of the N part of the W (outer) range housed a variety of storerooms and the first-floor was an infirmary. A cross wing to the N was formerly a wash-house, dry closet and laundry. The E arm of the U-plan is similarly (but not symmetrically) formed with two parallel ranges, the S part of the E (outer) range forming a hall/schoolroom. The northern parts of both ranges, together with a cross wing to the N, forms a play shed.

EXTERIOR: Principal range: the main (S) elevation is symmetrical and is of two storeys and nine bays. It has a central, projecting, 2-storey, enclosed porch with a stone-dressed Dutch gable; a central 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 are two moulded stone string courses with a stone cartouche set between that is inscribed KINGSTON-UPON-HULL/ SCHOOL BOARD 1888; the ground floor below has the main entrance which has a round arched fanlight and a moulded brick reveal, the fanlight being flanked by stone consoles styled as urns supported on carved corbels. There are three bays to either side of the porch, each bay having paired windows, those to the ground floor similar to that of the porch, those to the first floor lacking individual cornices, but sharing a continuous moulded-brick string course. The lower stone string course of the porch does not continue, the upper string course continuing as a moulded-brick band. This reverts back to a stone string course for the cross wings. The projecting gables of the flanking cross wings also have paired windows to each floor, those to the first floor extending by an additional 6-pane light into the head of the gable which is formed with moulded brickwork as an open pediment with dentilled cornicing framing a brick cartouche. Rising above the junction of the roof between the main range and each cross wing, is an ornate timber ventilation cupola with a stone or lead finial.

West Elevation: this is asymmetric with the 2-storey, 3-bay cross wing of the main range to the S; then a 3-bay single-storey former scullery and larder range with the window of the S bay extending up into a full dormer; the 2-storey, 8-bay storerooms and infirmary; and finally the 2-bay gable end of the single-storey former wash-house and laundry. Although continuing the style and use of materials of the front elevation, the architectural detailing becomes ever simpler northwards towards the rear. The side of the cross wing to the S has three ground floor windows detailed like those to the S elevation. The single first floor window, made up of multi-pane casements and fixed lights rather than sliding sashes, rises into a full dormer, the gable being corniced, but not embellished with a cartouche. Further N along the elevation, string courses are omitted and windows have simple flat-arched lintels of rubbed brick without further embellishment.

East Elevation: similar to the W in terms of asymmetry and the architectural detailing becoming simplified northwards. This elevation has the 2-storey, 3-bay cross wing to the S; then the tall single-storey 3-bay E hall/schoolroom with two large windows extending up into half dormers flanking a central window; then the blind, tall, single-storey play shed with its northern cross wing topped by a small timber ventilation cupola with a pyramidal cap and ball finial.

Rear Elevations: most of the central portion of the rear of the principal range is obscured by the 2-storey C21 extension*. What remains exposed is simply detailed, but still has a moulded brick eaves course. The play shed features wide, segmentally arched openings to the N (now blocked), S and W, these remaining as open arcades. The inner ranges of the E and W sides both feature large skylights that straddle the ridge-lines to light stairwells internally. The inner range of the W side stops short of the cross wing that formed the infirmary ward, the open space in between being enclosed by a wall capped by railings to form a secure courtyard including toilets.

INTERIOR: overall, the building largely retains its original internal layout along with many fixtures and fittings such as six panel doors (some with original brass door furniture and finger plates); internal windows for shared-lighting; linen and other cupboards generally with brass catches; and a number of 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 E and W sides and the large classrooms on the first floor of the cross wings to the principal range all retain timber boarded ceilings with exposed arch bracing to the roof trusses. The first floor classrooms in the cross wings also retain large, blocked fireplaces. Those to the main range retain part glazed partitions, although overall the detailing in all of these spaces is simple. The committee room (ground floor of the principal range), the matron’s room (office), the ward and matron's room within the infirmary are all better detailed, all retaining fireplaces, with those in the infirmary being Galton grates. The dining hall is extended to the side beneath an upper room with the use of a cast iron column supporting a timber beam. Similar cast iron columns also help support the kingpost trusses of the play shed roofs.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the school and playground are enclosed on three sides by a cement rendered pier and panel brick wall with stone copings. In addition a low brick wall with moulded ashlar coping stones and three pairs of gate posts front the school, facing S onto Park Avenue.

*Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 ('the Act') it is declared that the C21 classroom extension to the centre of the rear elevation, concrete access ramps, the lift, the computer room server and associated equipment, central heating boilers, the reception desk, late C20 toilet cubicles, suspended ceilings, and modern electrical fittings are not of special architectural or historic interest.

Sources

Books and journals
Neave, David, Neave, Susan, Pevsner Architectural Guides: Hull, (2010), 18 and 158
Allison, A.J., A History of the County of York: East Riding: Volume 1: The City of Kingston upon Hull, (1969)
Barnes, D, Sir Douglas and His Grate in Casemate, Vol. 7, (January 1981), 8 - 9
Ketchell, C, An Illustrated History of The Avenues and Pearson Park Hull, (1989), 37 - 38

Other
Victorian Board Schools in Kingston upon Hull, unpublished thesis, Hilary Byers
A Sketch History of the Avenues Centre 1888 - 1988, by KK

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