Description
Dated 1891. Asymmetrical, 3-storey and attic, 7-bay Queen Anne style former hotel. Rectangular plan, sandstone ashlar principal and side elevations, rubble rear elevation with stugged dressings. Ground floor, corniced and parapetted projecting shopfronts, elements continuing over loggia at centre, with shop windows and entrance to upper floors set behind, entrance to shop at centre. Canted bay windows at 1st and 2nd floors. Intermittent string course at 1st floor lintel level. Cill course at 2nd floor, cornice at lintel level, both continued around bay windows. Gabled dormers breaking eaves parapet at head of each bay, Dutch gables with semicircular open pediments at apex
and flanking finials.
W (GEORGE STREET) ELEVATION: modern shopfronts in bays 1 and 2. Arched and architraved entrance doorway in bay 4, (centre of 5-bay loggia) with key stone at centre and open pediment above. Flanking square openings, with supporting column on high base at centres, round-arched architraved windows behind except for doorway and steps at right opening. Chamfered corner at S end with doorway surmounted by open
pediment. 4-light canted bay window at 1st and 2nd floors, surmounted by balustrade in bays 1, 3, and 5. Transomed, tripartite windows at 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors, bays 2 and 4, bipartite windows at 1st and 2nd floors bays 6 and 7. Large dormer in bay 4 with 3 round arched windows at 4th floor level, corresponding to tripartite windows below; blind oval panel in gablehead.
E (REAR) ELEVATION: large flat roofed extension at ground floor. Windows regularly spaced, transomed bipartite windows at 1st floor level.
S (STEVENSON STREET) ELEVATION: 5-bay broad gable return of principal elevation. Ground floor, shop window in bays 1 and 2, bipartite, transomed windows in bays 3 and 4, architraved doorway with round-arched fanlight above to outer right. Upper floors, bay 1 blank, bipartite, transomed windows in centre bay, 2nd floor with pediment over, 3rd floor bipartite with segmental-arched fanlight and balustraded balcony supported on brackets in front. Datestone above 3rd floor centre window in moulded panel, strip pilasters extending from balcony to chimney stack cornice. Cornice of principal elevation returned and stopped at downpipe to left.
Timber sash and case windows to W elevation with lower sashes plate glass, 9-pane upper sashes; some modern replacement at 1st and 2nd floors. Rear elevation, timber sash and case windows at 1st floor with plate glass lower sashes, multi-pane sashes above, 2 and 4-pane timber sash and case windows elsewhere. Artificial grey slates to roof, ashlar stacks with small cornice and red cans, moulded skew copes with kneeler at mid-point to S elevation. Cast-iron downpipes with hoppers at W facade parapet. Illuminated pestle and mortar trade sign at N
end of George street elevation. Cast-iron pillar-box adjacent.