Red Lion Hotel

CASTLE STREET 1. 5123 (west side)

Red Lion Hotel TL 0921 2/34 II GV

1. Complex group of late C19 and Edwardian buildings. Main building is on corner of Castle and George Streets, and is in florid Edwardian style. Stucco faced with hipped Welsh slate roof. Two storeys, panelled parapet divided into bays by plain pilasters; heavy moulded dentil eaves course. Three window bays face Castle Street, and 4 George Street, divided by rounded corner bay. Seven first floor windows are sashes with slightly arched heads, architrave surrounds, keystones and quoins. The bays are separated by Corinthian pilasters decorated with a single lozenge motif. In the corner bay is a moulded red lion rampant. The ground floor has a continuous cornice and fascia with tall windows again separated by pilasters, this time decorated with a circle. Above the corner window is a segmental pediment decorated with a carved flower and leaf design. To George Street, the right hand bay has a carriage entrance opening into the old coaching inn courtyard flanked by earlier buildings now substantially altered. These are of colourwashed brick and render with old clay tile roofs, and are only of one storey and attics. To the Castle Street frontage is a range of buildings constructed of Luton grey bricks with some stone dressings. A low 2-storey range adjoins the florid Edwardian front, and has 3 sash windows with glazing bars and gauged brick heads to each storey. Adjacent to this is a taller 2-storey wing topped by a triangular pediment. Two first floor sash windows and cill band. The ground floor casements are flanked by plain brick pilasters with decorated stone pediments above the capitals. There is a cornice above the windows opening into a semi-circular arch above the central one. The arch is filled with a scallop pattern and a cartouche bearing the date 1881. Adjoining the Edwardian section on the George Street frontage is, by contrast, a delicately detailed mid-Victorian building. Now of colourwashed brick, it has a Welsh slate roof behind plain parapets. Three storeys. Both first and second floors have 3 sash windows with glazing bars and gauged brick heads. The ground floor has to the right-hand side a doorway with decorated fanlight in a surround of delicate fluted pilasters, entablature, dentil frieze and cornice. The window has similar pilasters with a decorated frieze across the top of the window, level with the capitals. Above is a deep entablature and shallow cornice.

Listing NGR: TL0921621086