The Victorian Conservatory, Pearson Park

Pearson Park began as a gift: in 1860 Zachariah Charles Pearson, then Mayor of Hull, gave land to the people of the town. The park was designed by James Craig Niven, a botanist who had worked as a curator at Kew. According to a heritage trail devoted to the park, the first conservatory is believed to have been moved from Hull's Zoological Gardens in 1891 and opened in the park that November. Minutes of the Parks and Recreation Committee note how popular its orchids and palms were with the public.

Weakened by wood rot, this first structure was demolished, and a new glasshouse bought from Richardson's of Darlington was put up on the same site in 1930. After the Second World War the committee asked for the variety of plants to be kept and supported by labels and interpretation, and in the early 1950s, when the park's aviaries were removed, the birds moved into the conservatory. It later housed reptiles, an aviary and an aquarium.

In July 2017 the Pearson Park Trust secured a £3 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project restored the entrance archway, the East Lodge, the statues and drinking fountains, reinstated the bandstand and a bridge over the lake, and replaced the 1930 conservatory with a third one designed as a close copy of the original. The sources consulted do not give its exact completion date.

Although always known as 'The Victorian Conservatory', the 1891 building was of a typically Edwardian design, according to the heritage trail. The present conservatory, covering 185 square metres, was built to reproduce that first design as closely as possible. It again has a lantern roof, rising to 6.4 metres, which shapes the building's outline both outside and inside.

The builders reused cast-iron supports from the previous glasshouse. They no longer carry any load in the new structure and are purely decorative, but they provide a physical link with the history of the site. The internal climate has changed as well: the new conservatory is run for temperate plants, whereas its two predecessors were tropical houses.

The building stands on the south bank of the lake, in a 27-acre (11-hectare) park registered at Grade II on the register of historic parks and gardens, with seven Grade II listed structures.

The conservatory's history can be read through its successive occupants. In its early years orchids and palms drew the crowds, to the point that the Parks and Recreation Committee recorded it in its minutes. After 1945 the instruction was to keep a wide variety of plants and label them. In the early 1950s birds from the closed aviaries were moved in, and the 1930 glasshouse later housed reptiles, which made it a popular attraction, along with an aviary and an aquarium.

The third conservatory returns the building to its botanical purpose. It displays a range of plants and flowers in a temperate setting rather than the tropical conditions of the earlier houses. The sources consulted do not list the species grown.

The conservatory stands on the south bank of the serpentine lake in Pearson Park, an 11-hectare public park. An hour's walk is enough to combine it with the other features restored after 2017: the Victorian-style bandstand, the bridge over the lake, the statues, drinking fountains and entrance archway, and the East Lodge. The park contains seven Grade II listed structures. Between April and September the conservatory is reserved for wedding ceremonies on some Fridays and Saturdays.