Look up and you’ll spot them, along with some fine architecture, reports our chimerical sculpture correspondent Angus Young.
There are plenty of lion sculptures dotted around the city centre but only two have wings. Perched on brick pillars beneath a distinctive roof turret topped by an ornamental weather vane, a pair of stone griffins overlook the junction of Ferensway and Anlaby Road. They’ve been there for 123 years, standing upright as if keeping guard over the building beneath them – Regent House.
The stylish landmark was designed by architect John Dosser to provide new premises for Turner & Drinkwater, one of Hull’s most respected photographic businesses. The company remained there until the early 1970s. Apart from its splendid griffins, Dosser’s building is also worth a long look because it includes a neat design trick.
At first glance, it appears to be three separate properties but architectural details are carried through each one to unite the overall design. Not surprisingly, it was awarded Grade II listed building status in 1994. Historic England’s official listing says: “The external exuberance of the architectural design and detailing of the surviving portion of the 1902 Regent House, designed to appear as three separate properties, is clearly of special interest as a good example of an Edwardian commercial building.”
Pleasingly, the original shopfront at No.26 Anlaby Road can now be seen after it was exposed and restored during refurbishment in 2015.
Dossor’s handiwork can also be seen just across the same junction in the shape of the former Kinemacolour Picture Palace which opened in 1910. Later known as the Regent Cinema, it’s now a pub trading under the name G.W. Horner ‘s.
Born in Hull, Dossor was the son of a sea captain who became commodore of the Ellerman Wilson shipping line. Instead of a nautical career, he decided to be an architect. He was an articled pupil with East Yorkshire’s largest practice Smith & Brodrick and later spent a year as an assistant to noted Hull architect Alfred Gelder before starting his own independent practice in 1898.
His initial work involved designing pubs but the Regent House commission really cemented his reputation as one the city’s up and coming architectural talents. By then he had already designed St. Augustine’s Parish Church Hall which still stands at the junction of Princes Avenue and Queens Road and he would go on to design several notable private houses in the Avenues, including a distinctive terrace of mock Tudor-fronted properties in Victoria Avenue.
In 1907 Dosser set up a new partnership known as Wellsted Dossor & Wellsted, designing a new school and parish hall for St. Mary’s Church in Sculcoates Lane. The firm was also responsible for more new housing in the Avenues, including a terrace of four homes in Richmond Street complete with leaded windows, overhanging eaves and cast-iron ventilators in a Garden Village-style design. Dossor’s touch is also in evidence in Newland Park where he designed at least seven properties in what is still regarded as Hull’s poshest street.
In 1932 Dossor became Lord Mayor of Hull having already become an alderman and a magistrate. At the time he was living at 135 Westbourne Avenue, ironically not one of his own designs but still with many internal features he had added over the years.
Despite his residential back catalogue, I still think Regent House is his finest work. Don’t forget to give his grifins an appreciative wave the next time you pass by.