![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768396634_100_grey-placeholder.png\")
![\"BBC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/4db769b0-f79c-11f0-a485-a772fcde70e9.jpg.webp.webp\")
BBC<\/p>\nSally Fairfax,in Hulland<\/p>\n
Paul Johnson,East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n
Danny Thompson outside Maister House, which was built in the 1740s<\/p>\n
Maister House has stood on Hull’s High Street since Georgian times. Today, the Grade I listed building, which is owned by the National Trust, is entering a new era as a music school. But its history has been shaped by trade, tragedy, loss and survival.<\/p>\n
Built in the 1740s, it originally belonged to the Maisters – a powerful merchant family who used it as a grand home and workplace.<\/p>\n
Its most celebrated feature, a stately stone staircase, is said to have been built after a fatal fire.<\/p>\n
Danny Thompson, the creative director of Eclectic Music, which is based at the property, has been telling the story to the BBC’s Hidden East Yorkshire podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n “The house originally had a wooden staircase and, unfortunately, the house set on fire and the staircase burnt down,” he explains.<\/p>\n “There was a child trapped inside and the mum ran back in with a maid to save the child.<\/p>\n “But, unfortunately, the staircase collapsed, killing the wife, one of the maids and one of the children.”<\/p>\n Historic England describes the interior as “of importance both locally and nationally”<\/p>\n The stairs were rebuilt in stone so they would never burn down again.<\/p>\n Danny points out where he thinks the fire may have started and adds: “You can see the char in the floor, beneath the new floor.”<\/p>\n When the property was built in the 1740s, Hull was a hotbed of trade and industry, and the Maisters were known around Britain and Europe for trading in iron, he says.<\/p>\n The house is renowned for its opulent interior, which Historic England describes<\/a> as “of importance both locally and nationally”.<\/p>\n “It has these great big steps that run up to the front and a big Palladian doorway and quite a sober-looking front,” Danny adds. “But when you go inside, it’s a real treat, as a lot of Georgian houses were.”<\/p>\n Listen to Danny telling Hidden East Yorkshire about Maister House<\/p>\n Along with the ornate staircase and intricate wrought-iron balustrade, which leads up to an octagonal lantern, other notable features include a stucco ceiling and decorative panels.<\/p>\n “There’s lots of detailed, handmade fruit work, grapes… it’s absolutely beautiful,” Danny says.<\/p>\n Scaffolding covers parts of the house at present, as it is undergoing renovation, with the eventual aim of returning more of the interiors to their original Georgian state.<\/p>\n “Unfortunately, we’re also scaffolded inside, so you don’t get the full look right up to the top window – the lantern on the top.”<\/p>\n During the Blitz, a bomb fell just across the road, leaving a large gap in High Street and taking the roof and lantern with it. <\/p>\n “Over time, the lantern had been replaced bit by bit, so there wasn’t much original material in there,” Danny explains.<\/p>\n The original lantern was destroyed during the Blitz<\/p>\n The whole thing will now be replaced with a structure matching the shape and look.<\/p>\n “They’re going to get a huge crane down the street and lift us a new lantern on to the top of the building and replace our roofs.”<\/p>\n The project received almost \u00a3111,000 in Levelling Up money<\/a> in November last year.<\/p>\n Today, Maister House is a centre for lifelong learning.<\/p>\n Teaching happens in some of the smaller rooms that would once have been the Maisters’ offices.<\/p>\n “When the Maisters lived here, their offices were downstairs and they lived on the first and second floors,” Danny explains.<\/p>\n “People would come down the river \u2013 the merchants with their iron \u2013 and they’d see this magnificent house and come into the entranceway and into these offices.<\/p>\n “All of the heads of the company traded from these spaces and impressed people in these rooms.”<\/p>\n Looking up towards the stucco ceiling and lantern<\/p>\n At the back of the building is now a musical instrument repair shop, where Danny and a colleague repair trumpets, saxophones and all manner of other instruments.<\/p>\n “I’ve had everything from contrabassoons, to bass clarinets, bass recorders, piccolos, you name it.<\/p>\n “We’ve had people come to us with disabilities, where we’ve remade parts of their instruments so they can play again.”<\/p>\n As a tenanted property, Maister House is closed to the public for most of the year, but the National Trust<\/a> opens it on selected days during the Heritage Open Days festival.<\/p>\n Danny says: “It’s a really proud feeling to know that we’ve been part of this building and its history.<\/p>\n “Now, it’s really starting to get recognised as the gem that it is.”<\/p>\n![\"Susan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/6f9599c0-f851-11f0-8ab6-81a112385ec5.jpg.webp.webp\")
Susan Amaku, Woodhall Planning and Conservation<\/p>\n![\"Susan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/9093f460-f846-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp.webp\")
Susan Amaku, Woodhall Planning and Conservation<\/p>\n![\"Susan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/7b370d50-f846-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp.webp\")
Susan Amaku, Woodhall Planning and Conservation<\/p>\n