Cupolas, or at least decorative rooftop projections on older buildings, seem to be quite common in the vicinity around Pearson Park, Hull. Above is a photo of the cupola(?) projecting from the roof of Stepney Primary School, Beverley Road, Hull, the picture taken from the rear window of a property on Pearson Park itself.
David Neave tells us that this elementary Board School was built in 1886 (Buildings of England series, Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Yale University Press, 2005, 522) and that it was one of 37 such schools built by Hull School Board between 1870 and 1902 ‘architecturally they are some of the best Victorian buildings in Hull’ (p.522). Board schools were a product of the 1870 Education Act (Forster’s Act) and were so called (ironically some might say) because they were overseen by a ‘board’ of guardians under the general authority of the government’s Board of Education. They were required to be built by local authorities wherever existing charity or religious schools were insufficient, thus paving the way for compulsory state elementary education twenty years later.
Like, for example, the huge ex board school on Newland Avenue (now flats) the lower part of the rooftop structure has louvre openings (see above). I suspect, without any further knowledge, that this helped circulate air inside the building. Sitting on top of this was/is an open-sided cupola like the one sited in the Park (s.p.b.s), although I suspect this one made of wood, with a lead-lined ‘onion-shaped’ cap, this having a projecting metal rod similar to the one in Pearson Park.
Again D. Neave writes that Hull School Board’s architect was William Botterill, from 1881 Botterill and Bilson. Stepney Elementary School (originally) was almost certainly designed by Bilson who had travelled in Europe and as a result shaped gables ‘are the distinguishing feature’. West facing brick gables along the front of Stepney Primary School exhibit a Dutch influence.
(to be continued).