The Waterloo Hotel

The Waterloo Hotel

Public house. Built in 1907 by Wood and Kendrick for Mitchells and Butlers Ltd, with minor late 20th-century alterations. Red brick with buff and red terracotta dressings and enrichment above a pink granite plinth. Slate roof with brick chimneys featuring terracotta banding and a weather vane in the form of a galleon.

The building occupies a corner site with a sub-rectangular plan. It comprises a public bar in the corner position with a parlour and billiard room behind, a basement grill room and bar, and hotel accommodation on the upper floors.

Externally, the hotel displays Edwardian Baroque style across three storeys above basement level. The ground floor is faced with red terracotta, with corbels supporting buff terracotta pilasters that rise through the upper two floors. These pilasters carry cartouches with husk drops and grotesque faces at second-floor level. Flanking the narrower entrance bay are bays with tripartite windows; those on upper floors sit within terracotta surrounds with Ionic columns and pedimented details, while first-floor windows are pedimented. A deeply moulded cornice parapet with cone finials is surmounted by shaped buff terracotta upstands containing cartouches inscribed with the date 1907 and the initials 'M.B.'. An attached red brick four-window range to the left is more simply treated and incorporates an attached retaining wall with cast-iron railings. A red terracotta band runs the length of the elevation between ground and first floors, inscribed with the words "Mitchells and Butlers Brewers Wine and Spirit Merchants". The splayed corner bay features a recessed entrance to the main bar with windows above framed in splayed buff terracotta surrounds with Ionic columns. The parapet is surmounted by a galleon weather vane. The return elevation to Waterloo Road follows the same style.

Internally, the bar is accessed through varnished timber vestibules with etched glass panels. The bar features fixed upholstered bench seating and a varnished and painted bar counter with pilasters and festoons. An ornate pedimented bar back incorporates mirrors with coloured glass below and stained glass panels above. Three walls are lined throughout with green glazed tiles featuring a frieze of medallions with husk drops in pink and green. The ceiling is covered with plain and embossed cream glazed tiles, and the floor is terrazzo.

The Shireland Road entrance leads to a hall with matching glazed tiles, from which the parlour and billiard room are accessed via altered doors. A staircase rises to a landing featuring a pedimented wooden kiosk with roller shutters and etched glass, which is said to have been used by a night watchman. The walls are tiled as before, with doors opening into spaces marked "Club Room" and "Private".

Steps from the ground-floor lobby descend to an exceptional basement grill room with a coffered ceiling. The walls and ceiling are decorated with tiles by Carters of Poole. The lower walls are green tiled, some embossed with designs of birds and dolphins. A bold multi-coloured frieze features designs of galleons and cartouches, while the ceiling is tiled in buff and green. At the entrance, a two-bay screen features stained glass panels of galleons; behind this stands upholstered seating with a bell-push. An ornate bar counter and back incorporate a dumb waiter. The opposite wall retains an original tiled and cast-iron grill. The terrazzo floor is accompanied by a tiled toilet with original urinals by Twyfords of Hanley.

This is an exceptionally fine and near-complete example of an Edwardian showpiece public house and commercial hotel, retaining its original plan-form and many interior features including the unusually ornate and complete basement grill room.