323 High Street

Hotel built in the early C19, converted to a shop and altered during the C20.

MATERIALS: the building is constructed of brick with a stuccoed principal elevation and a plain-tile roof covering.

PLAN: the building stands on the east side of High Street, facing west.

EXTERIOR: The building’s principal, western range fronting the High Street is of three storeys plus basement across four bays, the southernmost bay being slightly wider. The western elevation is stuccoed with Italianate detailing, channelled on the ground floor. The three northern bays of the ground floor contain a very wide glazed shopfront with moulded surrounds above a stone or stucco plinth painted black, while the southernmost bay contains a segmental-arched doorway. There are two, barred basement lights beneath the shop front. Above the shopfront runs a moulded band with floral motifs intersected by brackets supporting a cill band to the first-floor windows.

There are four windows each on the first and second floors, all of which are two-pane timber sashes set within moulded architraves. The first-floor window surrounds are more elaborate and carry bracketed cornices. Between each pair of first- and second-floor windows is a moulded apron with a central floral boss. Above the second-floor windows runs a bracketed cornice with similar floral bosses to the second-floor panels. Above the cornice is a stucco parapet with the raised lettering: QUEEN HOTEL, concealing the pitched roof sloping towards the High Street.

To the rear of the principal range is a much larger, two-to three-storey range, largely rebuilt in the late-C20, of red brick under a part-pitched, part-flat roof. The north flank of this range retains a large area of C19 brickwork where it adjoins the front range. The east and south elevations, along with the eastern end of the north elevation, are blank at ground- and first-floor level, with a range of windows in the floor of the south elevation and a single, late-C20 window on the east elevation.

Listing NGR: SK9749371007