Also visible from the same rear window of a property on Pearson Park (s.p.b.) is the rooftop structure of Stepney Primary School’s (s.p.b.) neighbouring building Beverley Road Baths. David Neave (s.p.b.) tells us that the B.R.B.’s building was constructed in 1905 to a design by Joseph Hirst and built in red brick with stone dressings, those building materials being fairly standard for the time (not David’s comment).
Seen above is a large cupola with a copper-clad dome. Yet again the top-most feature is a metal spike which may again have around it ‘three crowns’ (this yet to be confirmed). Unlike the rooftop feature of Stepney Primary School that above the Baths would appear to have had no practical function.
Although Beverley Road baths no longer has the individual baths it does have two swimming pools, shower rooms, a gym and sauna.
These two neighbouring buildings and the public library (no longer used as such) further south along Beverley Road are all listed buildings in this linear conservation area.
I can confirm David Neave’s comment about Beverley Road Baths that it has a ‘wonderful entrance hall with exceptional Art Nouveau tiling’. Any historic tour of Hull should include this site.
In the background of the above photo. can be seen what I still call the Croda chimney, although I’m not sure of its currant ownership or whether it is still used to project industrial affluent well above street level. It is a remarkable structure, but is it Hull’s tallest man-made structure? Is it taller than Hull Royal Infirmary, is it taller than the wind turbine on the edge of Oak Road playing fields? If any good at Maths I could work it out using the triangle system, but I’m hopeless at Maths. I came to Hull University because it was one of two that didn’t require Maths O Level. The other was Aberystwyth. Life could have been so different at Aberystwyth!
(to be continued).