Former Royal Hotel

The Former Royal Hotel is a mid-19th century building located on Sowerby Street in Sowerby Bridge. Constructed from coursed squared stone with a stone slate roof, it stands three storeys high with a cellar. The building features seven bays facing Sowerby Street and six bays on West Street, with a rounded corner bay. The openings have plain stone surrounds, and the windows are fitted with flat-faced mullions. The corner bay includes a three-light window on each floor, featuring curved four-pane sashes, along with a cornice and blocking course above, leading to a flat roof.

On the Sowerby Street side, the ground floor is rendered and painted, with a plinth and a first-floor cill band. There is a tall doorway with pilasters and a cornice in the second bay, and a tall round-arched doorway with a four-panel double door and fanlight in the fourth bay. This doorway has a hollow-moulded surround designed to resemble quoins, with small circular moulded recesses on either side. The windows have lintels that are incised to look like voussoirs, with most being sashes or four-pane sashes. The first bay's second-floor window is blocked, while the sixth bay features two-light windows on the ground and first floors, and the seventh bay has three-light windows with wider central lights. The first two bays have a flat roof, and there are two corniced stacks.

The West Street front has the first three bays set back slightly, separated by a straight joint from the right-hand section, which includes a cellar. There is a doorway in the third bay and a late 19th-century shop front in the left bay, complete with a four-panel door, shop window, rusticated jambs, and an entablature. Above this shop front, each floor has a three-light window with a wider central light, while the fourth bay has two-light windows on the ground and first floors. The sixth bay is blind, and the remaining windows are single-light. A continuous cill band runs along the first floor, with gutter brackets on the table. The right side features an eaves stack and two corniced ridge stacks. The building was recorded as being occupied in 1847 by John March, according to Whites Directory.