Former Royal Hotel

The former Royal Hotel is a building with a complex history, dating back to 1753 and significantly enlarged around 1870, with later alterations in the 20th century. It was originally built by Joseph Taite, a mason from Bramham, and served as a public house and hotel, alongside offices. The building is constructed of painted magnesian limestone, with a mix of stone slate, Welsh slate, and 20th-century cement-tile roofing.

The building comprises four distinct parts. The original three-storey, three-bay house features a blocked central doorway flanked by Venetian windows with projecting sills and casements with glazing bars and keyed arches. Four-pane sashes are found on the first floor under flat arches, with smaller four-pane sashes to the second floor beneath a more recent fascia board. A cement-tiled roof tops this section, with yellow brick end stacks.

The circa 1870 addition to the right is taller, spanning two storeys and five bays. A recessed bay one features a possible relocated 18th-century doorway with a six-panel door and fanlight incorporating Gothic glazing bars, set within a Doric-columned stone porch with triglyphs, guttae, and an open pediment. A ground floor sill band links the four-pane sashes under painted wedge lintels. First floor windows are matching four-pane sashes with projecting sills under a fascia board. The addition includes a yellow brick ridge stack and a painted brick end stack.

A three-storey, three-bay side wing is set back to the left of the original house, with a two-storey, two-bay block beyond. The side wing has a 20th-century porch flanked by plain sashes with projecting sills on shaped blocks. Three-light horizontally-sliding sashes are present on the first floor, with similar windows on the second floor, the central one being blind. This section is finished with a stone slate roof and a brick end stack. The two-bay block features a Venetian window, plain sashes and segmental arches with projecting stone sills, and has a Welsh slate roof alongside rendered and brick stacks.

Located at the rear of the building, earlier sections have stone slate roofs. Modern flat-roofed additions to the rear-right, along with a brick addition, are not considered to be of particular architectural interest.

Historically, the building was recorded as the first substantial house constructed in Boston Spa, built as an inn on the newly turnpiked road between Tadcaster and Otley, at its junction with the lane to Thorp Arch.