Yarborough Hotel

Yarborough Hotel

The Yarborough Hotel in Grimsby is a substantial three-storey hotel with attic and basement, built in 1851 for the second Earl of Yarborough and The Royal Dock Company. The building was enlarged in 1891 for the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company. It has undergone twentieth-century alterations. Constructed in red brick with ashlar and painted brick dressings beneath a Welsh slate roof, it displays Italianate styling throughout.

The building is approximately rectangular in plan, with a slightly recessed taller L-shaped ballroom and staircase hall section to the south, which faces the railway station and incorporates a recessed entrance porch in the south-west angle.

The Bethlehem Street front presents a symmetrical five-bay elevation. The ground floor features a tall central entrance with twentieth-century double doors set within a nineteenth-century pilastered surround with bracketed hood and plain brick panel above, all contained within a taller pilastered surround with hood. Tall two-over-four sash windows with segmental-headed architraves flank the entrance, with their lower sections blocked to the left. The first floor displays similar but shorter sashes with bracketed sill string course. Round-headed sashes with glazing bars light the second floor and sit within sill bands and painted moulded architraves. The eaves feature an elaborate frieze with dentils and chequered brickwork, with a deep moulded cornice beneath. The attic contains small segmental-headed two-over-two sashes with bold brick panels between, moulded cornice and blocking course. Plain roof stacks crown the composition. Rusticated quoins, plinth and sill string courses run throughout. The left return bears a large panel at second-floor level inscribed with the hotel name.

The Station Yard front comprises a nine-bay section to the left with details matching those of the Bethlehem Street elevation. A central door in a Doric pilastered surround with entablature, hood and blocking course opens onto the yard through panelled double doors. The three ground-floor windows to the far left are tall two-over-four sashes; the remainder are two-over-two sashes with panelled brick aprons. To the right is the taller, slightly recessed section added in 1891, incorporating similar details and fenestration to the ground and second floors. The first floor here contains tall elliptical-headed windows in architraves, each containing segmental-headed two-over-four sashes with oval lights above. The attic of this section mirrors the adjoining section but is taller, with high blocking course and ornate corniced stacks.

The recessed angle to the right displays irregular fenestration and a projecting two-storey porch with an elaborate ashlar entrance. The porch features five steps with a balustrade wall and short section of ornate wrought-iron railings to the right. Panelled double doors are set beneath a moulded segmental arch with festoon reliefs in the spandrels. Fluted Doric pilasters, dentilled cornice and a hood with tall blocking course inscribed "HOTEL" surround the doors. The brick first floor contains a pair of small elliptical-headed windows, each with four panes below an oval light, and is topped by a coped parapet. The right return has a window in architrave with carved shell hood. The left return of the main range displays irregular fenestration and a corbelled-out chimneybreast from the first floor bearing a panel inscribed "THE YARBORO' HOTEL".

The basement has segmental-arched openings and raised brick panels throughout.

Internally, the main south-west entrance staircase hall, accessed from the porch, contains carved window surrounds and a cantilevered stone staircase with heavy Gothic-style newel and cast-iron balustrade featuring wheel motif. The foyer to the west Station Yard entrance has arched openings, a secondary staircase with cast-iron balustrade and swept handrail. Ground-floor function rooms, those to the Bethlehem Street front having been opened out into a single room, feature ornate plasterwork cornices.

The south-west section contains a ground-floor room with pedimented panels. The first-floor ballroom features a pair of former entrances with overdoors and fanlights, and a panelled plasterwork ceiling decorated with scrollwork, flowers, fruit, and a frieze with urns and masks. Corridors are fitted with twentieth-century suspended ceilings, probably concealing original cornices above.