Lloyd And Platts Hotel

Lloyd and Platts Hotel

A public house with integral sports verandah and attached clubhouse, formerly also functioning as a hotel. Built around 1870, with later 19th or early 20th century additions and significant late 20th century alterations and additions. The building is believed to have been designed by E.J. Thompson of Manchester for George Lloyd and James Platt.

The structure is constructed in smooth red brick with ashlar sandstone dressings, side wall chimney stacks, and slate roof coverings. It occupies an irregular corner plot between Wilbraham Road and Whitelow Road (formerly Manchester Road), with an attached extension block to the rear facing onto an associated crown bowling green.

The Whitelow Road elevation presents two storeys across five bays. The earlier three-bay range to the left features a central doorway approached by a flight of four steps with low flanking walls. The doorway itself has double doors and a wide rectangular overlight set beneath a flat canopy supported by massive ashlar corbelled brackets. This canopy extends leftward to form a shallow balcony serving the upper floor windows. Above the doorway is a single light opening, with a tripartite opening to the right. A full-height semi-circular bay window stands to the left of the doorway, featuring ashlar lintel and cill bands, and a wider ashlar band below the upper floor windows bearing relief lettering reading "LLOYD AND PLATTS HOTEL". The right-hand end bay contains a tripartite window at ground floor level and a three-light dormer window with a half-hipped roof. Throughout, sash window frames lack glazing bars. Deep eaves brackets of moulded brick and ashlar sandstone extend across the elevation. The lower range to the right displays two tall upper floor sash windows flanking a projecting truncated chimney stack.

The Wilbraham Road elevation comprises three bays, with a full-height canted bay window to the left, a central doorway with panelled door beneath a bracketed flat canopy, and stacked sash windows to the right flanking a projecting chimney stack. At its base stands a carved ashlar plaque bearing the coat of arms of the Lloyd family.

The bowling green (south) elevation features the main three-bay range with an arcaded ground floor supported by cast-iron columns. The upper floor contains a central oriel window with a lead-covered canopy set below a shallow gable with boarded apex. Paired sash windows flank the oriel, all positioned below shallow dentilled eaves. To the right, a late 20th century external stair provides access to the altered and extended side elevation. To the left, an attached single-storey clubhouse features a hipped slated roof, central door, and flanking sash windows.

The interior's ground floor was remodelled in the late 20th century, while the upper floor and extension remain less heavily modified.

The building was specifically designed as a public house and hotel with associated recreational facilities including tennis courts and a crown bowling green. The southern extensions were conceived as a covered terrace or pavilion for spectators, enlarging the earlier original covered accommodation. It represents an early manifestation of purpose-built spectator facilities for sporting events associated with public houses, a concept that would see much wider expression in the brewery-financed roadhouses of the inter-war period.