The County Hotel

The County Hotel is a substantial hotel with integrated shops occupying one end of a city block in Newcastle upon Tyne. The building incorporates Nos. 28, 30, 34 and 36 Neville Street, Nos. 1–17 odd Grainger Street, and the second floor of No. 51 Westgate Road.

The east front on Neville Street was designed in 1874 by John Johnstone in Italianate style. The south front was added in 1897 by H. M. Graham in a more elaborate manner, predominantly Baroque in character. Both principal fronts are built in sandstone ashlar with purple slate roofs and copper domes.

The hotel occupies an angled L-plan. Modern shops occupy the ground floor on all three fronts, their shop fronts set behind retained stone dividing pilasters and fascias from the original scheme.

The south (main entrance) front comprises five storeys and an attic over nine bays and is symmetrically arranged. A projecting quoined centrepiece contains a recessed modern doorway with cast iron porch and fanlight, with a balcony above. A carriage arch is set in the left bay. The ground floor shops are separated by stone pilasters. The right corner is angled with a granite column supporting the first floor. The central first-floor window is round-arched with rusticated archivolt and triple keystone, flanked by paired windows. Most other first-floor windows are set in shallow canted bays, except for a pointed bay at the left and an angled bay at the right corner. A cast iron balcony runs across the second-floor level. The outer bays rise as half-octagonal projections with floor strings and cornices. Above, windows on the second and third floors are paired sashes set in architraves with eaves; third-floor windows are topped by alternately segmental pediments. A deep modillion cornice crowns the front, except at the outer bays which carry strapwork drums supporting copper domes. A shaped and pedimented central gable features a shell niche, with three pairs of sash dormers on either side.

The east front on Neville Street is four storeys and attic, with a more elaborate design spanning fifteen bays in total. The left three bays echo the treatment of the south front. The right three bays are plainer in style. Rusticated ground-floor pilasters are retained between later shop fronts, with a bracketed fascia cornice above. The end sections have paired windows set in giant round-arched recesses. The centre section has paired sashes. The second and third floors feature elaborate window treatment including carved ornament, attached columns and enriched cornices. These are topped by three groups of three large shaped, coped gables with urn finials.

On Grainger Street the main front is four storeys and attic, arranged in a 3:5:3 bay pattern with fifteen bays in all. The left corner is of later construction and the three right bays are of plainer style. Rusticated ground-floor pilasters are retained. The entrance in the third bay has a painted plinth and pilasters with side and overlights; painted glass panels read COUNTY/BUFFET/HOTEL. Fascia brackets support a ground floor leaf-moulded cornice. The end groups of three bays have two-storey round-headed arches containing paired windows, the upper ones also round-headed; the central five bays have paired sashes with Gothic pilasters to those of the second floor. A dentilled cornice runs across the second floor, bracketed at the outer bays. A dentilled and modillioned cornice rises above the third floor sashes. The attics have cord-moulded surrounds under shaped pediments and are linked by an arcaded balustrade.

The north front on Westgate Road is similarly treated to the right bays of the east front.