White Hart Hotel

600/1/46 DUNSTABLE STREET 17-JUN-51 (East side) 127 WHITE HART HOTEL

GV II

Hotel, early C18 with C17 origins discovered during late-C20 restoration work. 3 storeys of red brick, framed by broad stone pilasters at each corner, bands at each upper floor and a moulded cornice below the plain parapet with stone coping. Central entrance with 3 window bays to each side.

FACADE: 7 tall sash windows in broad frames, fluted on ground floor only, within moulded architraves which project forward off the wall. Stone cills. Each architrave broken by a bold keystone. Plain classical stone frame with moulded cornice encloses door of 8 panels (6 fielded), flanked by a pair of engaged and reeded columns. Carriageway to left-hand side, under single storey of plaster with coved eaves and steep tiled roof, leading to a yard with tile-hung and weatherboarded sections of building.

INTERIOR: Possibly two storeys heightened to three with the Georgian remodelling. Central hall with stick baluster stair. Hall and front room to right-hand side have remnants of timber framing including a joweled post. Bressumer above fireplace to front right-hand side room above which is a good surviving and recently uncovered (c.1980s) tripartite coloured wall painting. To centre panel: Prince of Wales (Charles II) feathers in circular frame with painted drapes filling the square panel and bearing the date 1646. Panel to left has thistle and flower motif. First floor room over carriageway has architrave to former door opening possibly of pre-Georgian date. Timber roof with some sections of halved and pegged rafters (in the room over the carriageway entrance, to the rear slope and in the rear right-hand side wing). Brick barrel-vaulted beer cellar running longitudinally and reached by winder stair from back hall.

SOURCES: VCH, page 268.

SPECIAL: No. 127 forms a group with Nos. 1 to 39 (odd) and Court House, Church Street. An early-C18 hotel with recently uncovered C17 wall painting and strong group value.

Listing NGR: TL0348038089