Old Market Tavern

The Old Market Tavern, which was formerly known as the Unicorn Hotel, is an early 19th-century hotel incorporating a former Town Hall built in 1849 for Lord Stamford. It is constructed of brick, with rendered brick sections, stone dressings, and slate roofs. The hotel has a three-storey, four-bay, double-gabled east elevation, a three-bay elevation facing the Market Place, and a two-storey three-bay wing. The former Town Hall adjoins the north side, projecting slightly and consisting of three bays and two storeys.

The hotel’s later 19th-century additions include a projecting plinth, sill bands, decorative cornices over the two first-floor windows, pierced bargeboards, yellow brick stacks, and a flat porch with Tuscan columns and a heraldic shield. The original facade featured 11 window openings, three of which are blocked and none of which retain original sashes. A doorcase with overlight remains. The Market Place elevation was also embellished in the late 19th century and contains four stepped three-light windows on the ground floor, five window openings on the first floor and three on the second floor, all now fitted with casement windows.

The former Town Hall has a stone plinth, banded rustication to the ground floor, a first-floor sill band, and an eaves cornice, formerly bracketed. The ground floor features semi-circular headed openings with keystones above two casement windows, and a carriage entry in the first bay. The central bay is slightly advanced, housing an oriel window, a clock turret, a classical bellcote, and a weather-vane. Tall casement windows, formerly sashed, flank the oriel. It has a hipped roof.