61 and 63 Westgate (formerly the White Horse Hotel)

Public house, built 1901 as the White Horse Hotel to the design of H Crutchley.

MATERIALS: sandstone ashlar front elevation and to the exposed west gable and chimney; red brick to the side and rear elevations. Welsh slate roof.

PLAN: central entrance to the principal elevation (north) onto Westgate, secondary entrances to the rear open onto White Horse Yard which runs down the west side of the property.

EXTERIOR: the street frontage is in Northern Renaissance revival style, the windows on all three floors having Art Nouveau leaded glazing to the top lights. The rear range, which extends to the south along White Horse Yard, is architecturally utilitarian.

North elevation: the principal elevation to Westgate is gabled to the road and is of five bays and three storeys plus attic. The façade is divided horizontally by entablatures between floors, whilst triple pilasters flank each bay on the first and second floors. On the ground floor, bays one, three and five contain round-arched openings; the end bays containing windows, whilst the central bay contains an entrance door with overlight with leaded art nouveau glazing. They have keystones, imposts and shallow relief carvings in the spandrels. Above are triangular pediments breaking into the entablature, supported by tall, fluted corbels which run through the impost band. Within the tympanum are shallow relief carvings; that in the central bay contains a ‘greenman’ mask. Bays two and four contain flat-arched moulded window openings with curved upper corners and a foliated frieze in a recessed panel above. Below the windows is a continuous sill band and moulded panels above a moulded plinth.

The first- and second-floor window openings have a similar form to those in bays two and four on the ground floor. The triple pilasters that flank each bay are in an eclectic style, with early English bases, and capitals with fluting and egg-and-dart motifs.

The attic storey has a triangular coped gable with arcaded three-light window opening framed by pilasters that extend above the roofline as pinnacles with ball finials. These pilasters rise through an ornamental frieze above the windows which has a central swag and highly ornamented scrolls to the ends. Above is a decorative shield inscribed with the date ‘1901’. Behind is a high-pitched Welsh slate roof with pierced ridge tiles, and an elaborate right end ashlar chimney which is mirrored to the left by a taller version attached to the adjacent building. To the rear of the street frontage range, there are two further chimneys, these being brick.

Rear range: is of an irregular nine bays and three storeys (which are lower than the three storeys of the street frontage), built of brick in utilitarian style for 1901 with most openings having segmental-arch heads, some retaining sashes and geometric leaded glazing. The range has three tall ridge stacks. There are various later alterations and small extensions.