Plough and Harrow Hotel

Plough and Harrow Hotel

A hotel designed by John Fallows for the Calthorpe Estate, built in 1832-3 with additions and alterations dating from the mid to late 19th century and the 20th century.

The building is constructed of red brick with red sandstone dressings and a tiled roof, with later additions in plum-coloured brick facing a reinforced concrete frame and felt roof. It comprises two storeys with attics and basements. The reception and function rooms are located to the south, with the service wing extending to the west. A related stable block stands to the west of the service wing, running parallel to it.

The south front facing Hagley Road displays the earliest portion from 1832-3 on the left. This section features three bays of red Flemish-bond brick with lavish sandstone dressings including quoins, string courses, window surrounds and gable copings. Projecting wings with steeply raked gables flank either side. At the centre of the ground floor is a projecting porch with a shaped gable, containing a panelled door and lancets to the flanks. Above sits a three-light window with mullions and transom, with the shaped gable bearing a sunken rectangular tablet at its centre. The gabled wings have four-light mullioned and transomed windows to both floors and a lancet to each lateral gable. Tall chimney stacks with two chimneys flank each gable end.

To the right extends an addition apparently dating from the 1870s or 1880s, featuring a taller ridge and three wide bays with a slightly projecting gabled bay at the far right. A projecting chimney stack with offsets and stone dressings rises between the first and second bays from the left. Two-light mullioned windows flank this stack at first floor level, with a similar window at far right. At ground floor level are two large square bay windows with brick parapets to the left and a canted bay to the right, these appearing to be early 20th-century additions.

The western flank facing Harrow Road has a similar three-bay front of 1832-3 on the left, featuring a projecting porch tower of two storeys with a gabled head at the centre. The ground floor doorway has been slightly extended in the 20th century in plum-coloured brick with glazed doors of Tudor head form. A three-light window serves the first floor and a two-light attic window the shaped gable. To the right is blind walling with a central stack with offsets. To the left is a similar stack flanked by mullioned and transomed windows of two and three lights. The service wing extends leftward, with three and four-light windows with cambered heads to the ground floor and low two-light windows at first floor level. A doorway stands at the far left with a long staircase window adjoining.

The eastern flank displays the late-19th-century addition to the left, featuring a projecting gabled wing with three arched relieving arches to the ground floor, the lateral two blocked and the central containing a 20th-century window. To its right stands the early-20th-century addition of one storey with a doorway left of centre and three small gables at the top of the wall. Behind this, the first floor of the late-19th-century addition has mullioned and transomed windows with a string course that rises above the first floor windows to form a drip mould.

The north face overlooking Hagley Road features a large segmental bow window to the ground floor, ten lights wide with mullions, transom and a glazed door at the centre. Above are two three-light windows and a parapet. To the left is a 20th-century kitchen extension positioned in the angle between the reception rooms and service wing, largely masked at ground floor level with two-light windows set in colourwashed walling.

The interior of the original portion contains a central corridor running from the Hagley Road porch entrance through to the service wing. Three bar rooms on the west side have been combined into one interconnected space, with the southernmost retaining panelled shutters and original cornicing. The southern room on the east side of the passage retains its original cornice. At first floor level, three rooms on the west side have been joined to form a function room with 20th-century cornicing and panelling below the dado. The late-19th-century addition contains large ground floor reception rooms that have been interconnected by new openings, with cornicing and panelled ceilings remaining in some areas. The staircase dates from the mid-20th century. Two first floor rooms contain stone corbels carved with foliage and large gothic brackets, indicating that this area was formerly open to the ridge, possibly functioning as a decorated gothic function room.

The L-shaped hotel bedroom wing of approximately 1970 extending north and east from the north end of the service wing is not included in this listing.