The Berkeley Hotel

The Berkeley Hotel

The Berkeley Hotel is a large roadhouse designed by Scott & Clark of Wednesbury and opened in 1940. Built of mellow red brick with buff brick and faience dressings, it has hipped pantiled roofs and brick chimneystacks. The building is mainly two storeys plus basement. The exterior displays a blend of Neo-Georgian, Moderne, Art Deco and Oriental influences, whilst the interior incorporates classical and Art Deco design elements.

Plan and Setting

The Berkeley Hotel has an irregular U-shaped plan comprising a front range with two wings of differing sizes set to the rear and arranged around a courtyard. The hotel stands within a very large plot incorporating a car parking forecourt to the front and west side, and gardens (now heavily overgrown) to the north-east side and rear. The building's front elevation is angled to face south-east towards a roundabout at the junction of Doncaster Road, Scotter Road and Kingsway.

Exterior

The exterior incorporates handmade facing bricks and fixed-pane and casement windows with decorative leaded glazing. The building's hipped roofs have deep overhanging eaves that are slightly kicked and reference an Oriental-inspired form of Art Deco that was popular in the 1930s, especially in cinemas.

Front (South-East) Elevation

The principal elevation features a single-storey entrance projection with a wide entrance doorway containing double doors with a leaded overlight. Fluted faience half-columns form a surround to the doorway and a faience canopy or hood above incorporates wave detailing. Flanking the entrance to each side and forming part of the projection are wide canted bays (containing toilets and cloakrooms) lit by small round-arched windows. The bays incorporate low buff-brick half-columns to the canted corners, which are surmounted by globe lights that are a later addition and replaced flame-style lights believed to have been present originally. The whole entrance projection is set underneath a pantiled mansard roof. Rising above and behind the entrance is a frontispiece that rises above the eavesline with a round-arched window and a stepped parapet with curved edges. A flag pole is set behind the parapet, which is also adorned with Art Deco-style relief lettering with a curved underside that reads 'The Berkeley'. The first floor above and behind the cloakroom projections is lit on each side by three top-hung casement windows. Flanking the entrance projection are two two-storey hipped-roofed projections, both with two full-height round-arched recesses in buff brick containing cross windows to the ground floor and three-light casements to the first floor. The symmetry of the front elevation is then disrupted by the fact that the elevation continues for an additional two bays beyond the north-east projection. These two bays also incorporate cross windows to the ground floor and three-light casements to the first floor. Set back slightly to the right is a flat-roofed two-storey projection with a tall round-arched window that lights a stair accessing the manager's flat. Attached to the far right of the elevation is a single-storey service projection, which is separated from a detached outbuilding by a small service yard. The buildings are linked at the front and rear by a high brick wall incorporating a timber pedestrian gate on both sides. The detached outbuilding to the far right (north-east end) has a boarded-over window to the front and a curved east corner.

North-East Elevation

This elevation incorporates the north-east return of the front range to the far left, which is plainer on this side with a series of small first-floor windows lighting part of the manager's flat, and the service buildings attached to the ground floor. A large single-storey flat-roofed rear wing to the right contains the hotel's ballroom and incorporates a series of large arched windows and French windows with Diocletian fanlights; the wall face incorporating the French windows is recessed, enabling the roof to form a canopy. The north-west end of the ballroom incorporates a canted projection to the centre that forms a dressing room or backstage area for the ballroom's stage.

Rear (North-West) Elevation

The rear of the building is formed by a series of projections. To the centre of the ground floor is a single-storey dining-room projection that flows into the north-east ballroom projection. Both incorporate a series of arched doorways and French windows with Diocletian fanlights that look out or lead out onto the courtyard; all are recessed beneath the roof canopy. The first floor of the front range behind the dining room is lit by a series of windows, and a doorway leads out onto the dining room's roof. First-floor level projections at each left and right end contain a bathroom belonging to the manager's flat and the main stair respectively. Attached to the far right of the elevation and forming the south-west side of the courtyard is a two-storey bedroom wing (part of which has a flat roof) with a circa 1960 single-storey projection containing toilets attached to its north-west end. The wing retains its original fire-exit stair and also incorporates a two-storey canted projection facing into the courtyard with sash windows on the ground floor that originally formed a garden servery.

South-West Elevation

This elevation incorporates the south-west return of the front range to the far right, which has two arched recessed bays in the same style as those to the front with windows to both floors. Set back to the left and projecting north-westwards is the two-storey hipped-roofed rear wing with a two-storey flat-roofed block attached at the north-west end. Cross windows light the ground floor, with mainly two- and three-light windows to the first floor. The wing's central bay has rusticated pilaster strips that flank an arched window recess to the ground floor, which is in the same style as the building's two-storey recesses. Two round-arched doorways with moulded buff-brick inner surrounds exist to each end of the elevation (that to the left forms part of the flat-roofed block at the north-west end and accesses the public bar, whilst that to the right formerly accessed the off-sales) and contain doors incorporating roll-moulding detail and leaded glazing, with leaded fanlights above.

Interior

The original plan layout survives virtually intact and original doors and door furniture survive throughout, as well as many light fittings. The main entrance leads into a large T-shaped hall or foyer with round-arched doorways of varying size with fanlights leading off into the various areas of the ground floor. Toilets and cloakrooms lie off to the south-east side of the foyer flanking the main entrance; the toilets have been modernised, but have tiling in 1930s style, and the cloakrooms have been converted into a disabled toilet and a store room. The cloakrooms were originally accessed via lobbies in the toilets, but modern doorways have been inserted in the entrance foyer in the same style as the rest of those in the foyer.

Located to the right (north-east) side of the entrance foyer is the hotel reception or office window, which has a polished-wood counter and leaded-glazed sashes above. The office itself has been subdivided and its fireplace removed. A doorway to the left provides access to the office and the hotel's kitchen, which also has access into the dining room and ballroom, and retains a separate scullery.

Set to the rear of the entrance hall or foyer is a wide dog-leg stair with curved side walls and lower steps that fan outwards. The upper flight retains its original slender metal handrail, but those to the lower flight have been replaced. Two large doorways to the right of the stair lead into a large dining room, which has a geometric coffered ceiling and an original polished-wood panelled dado with inlay strips and inset bell pushes that incorporates a bar counter on the south-west wall. A similarly styled panelled pot-shelf screen sits above the counter. The bar back is also original and the servery connects through to the serveries of the lounge, public bar and a former off-sales. A small room off to the north-west side of the dining-room bar servery, which is now used as a washing-up and storage area, originally formed a garden servery and was accessed internally from the public-bar servery. The dining room does not have a fireplace and instead has central heating with polished-wood radiator covers with curved ends. Two doorways on the north-east side of the room set within round-arched recesses provide in and out access into the kitchen. Two larger round-arched doorways to the left containing double doors lead into the ballroom, which has an original maple dance floor, lighting niches, a recessed-panelled ceiling, coving incorporating shaped wave-like decoration, and a stage at the north-west end. Two in and out doorways at the south-east end of the room in the same style as those in the dining room provide access into the kitchen.

Located to the left (south-west end) of the entrance foyer is a wide arched opening containing leaded-glazed double doors and side lights with a Diocletian fanlight above. This leads into the lounge, which has Art Deco plasterwork decoration to the ceiling and retains the majority of its fixed-bench seating. A polished-wood fireplace, which appears to be 1930s in date with a later mosaic-tile insert, was brought in from elsewhere in the late 20th century. A panelled bar counter and pot shelf above, which are set to the north corner, are also late 20th century in date and replaced the original polished-wood versions that were similarly styled to those in the dining room. The lounge's servery links to the serveries of the dining room and public bar and a stair accessing the beer cellars. The servery also links to a former off-sales area, which has a wave-like frieze at picture rail height. The off-sales has lost its counter and is now used for storage.

The public bar is located to the rear left of the ground floor in the south-west rear wing and public access is only via the exterior. A small vestibule leads into a lobby, both with original terrazzo floors and a wave-like frieze in the same style as that to the former off-sales. Off to the lobby's north-west side are gentlemen's and ladies toilets; the gentlemen's retains its original buff, red and black wall tiling, but the ladies toilets have been altered and enlarged through the addition of a circa 1960 small single-storey extension. A door off to the south-east side of the lobby leads into the public bar, which has fixed-bench seating, a simple Art Deco stone fireplace and a panelled bar counter to the east corner. The counter was shortened slightly in 1990 and its canted corner moved back. The bar back survives in its original form.

The first floor accommodation originally included nine bedrooms, three shared bathrooms, and a large writing lounge. There are now eight bedrooms contained within the south-western half of the front range and the adjacent rear wing (one of the guest bedrooms and the former writing lounge in the front range now form part of the manager's flat, which occupies the north-eastern half of the front range) and en-suite bathrooms have been created, two of which were originally shared bathrooms. A bathroom on the north-east side of the rear wing has remained separate. The main stair's first-floor landing was boxed-in on the south-west side through the addition of a glazed partition in the 1970s for fire safety reasons. The manager's flat incorporates a corridor that runs alongside the north-west wall with rooms off to the front and north-east end. A doorway off to the north-west side leads out onto the roof of the dining room and ballroom projections. The former guest writing lounge contains a modern gas fireplace. An original secondary stair at the north-east end of the flat provides access down to the hotel kitchen and service yard.