The Hop Market

SO8455SE 620-1/12/610 20/09/73

WORCESTER THE FOREGATE (East side) No.13, 14 AND 15 The Hop Market (Formerly Listed as: THE FOREGATE (East side) Nos.14 AND 15 The Hop Market Hotel)

GV II

Hotel and bank, now shops and offices. Dated 1900 with later alterations and conversions to shops c1980. Architect said to be Alfred B Rowe (of Henry Rowe and Son). Red brick and terracotta with concealed roof. French chateau and Tudor-style elements. L-plan with inner courtyard. Three storeys with attics, seven bays to main facade (The Foregate) and six bays to left return on Sansome Street. Main facade: Doric pilasters between bays to each floor, those to second floor have capitals incorporated into modillion cornice. Arcaded eaves band. Through first and second floors are bows to second, fourth and sixth bays with central round-arched lights with casement windows and fanlights with radial glazing bars between transomed lights, all in tooled architraves. To alternate bays on first floor are 4-light windows, with Ionic column-on-vase mullions and transoms, window at left is a segmental bow; above these to second floor are 3-round-arched windows with continuous entablature and Ionic columns on plinths between. Bands between floors have carved panels to bows and 'HOP MARKET / COMMERCIAL / HOTEL / BANK' to alternate bays. Attic dormers with shaped pedimental features and gables with shaped pediments with scrolls, urns and finials. Curved angle at left has similar 2-light fenestration and is crowned by domed cupola with detached columns supporting broken entablature with scrolls above. Ground floor has elliptically-arched carriageway to third bay and entrance with segmental pediment on brackets to seventh bay, and fenestration similar to that on first floor. Sansome Street elevation similar but with only one bow to fifth bay which has on ground floor an elliptically-arched entrance with scrolled broken pediment with putti, festoon and swag. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORICAL NOTE: Pevsner describes it as having 'a dash of the Loire ... Some Tudor touches are also noticeable'. Nos 11-15 (consecutive) The Foregate comprise a fine late Victorian commercial group in a spirited Northern Renaissance style. A large building which occupies an important corner site at the junctions of Sansome Street, Foregate Street, Shaw Street and The Foregate, this is a significant streetscape feature, having group value and helping to frame the view to the High Street. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Worcestershire: Harmondsworth: 1968-1985: 331-2).