Tower Hotel

Tower Hotel

Large house, now hotel, built in 1885. Constructed in gault brick with Roman cement dressings and a roof concealed behind a balustrade. The main block is of two storeys with a prominent tower at the north corner.

Exterior

The main front comprises three wide bays marked by rusticated strip pilasters. A plain parapet balustrade tops the centre bay, with cornices at each floor level. On the first floor, each outer bay contains two segmental-headed windows as two-light casements with fanlights and moulded surrounds with vermiculated keystones. The sills project on consoles beneath a floral frieze. The central bay has two plain segmental-headed windows. The ground floor repeats this pattern in the outer bays. The central ground-floor bay features a semicircular-arched entrance with a spandrel filled with a wrought-iron grille over a plain glass fanlight, flanked by small vertical windows with circular windows above in a Serliana-like arrangement.

Horizontal cornices continue across all elevations. The north-east elevation displays a canted bay with semicircular-headed windows. The tower rises in four stages with banded rusticated edge strips and two narrow semicircular-headed windows on the ground and first floors. A narrow stage at balustrade level contains three small rectangular openings on each exposed face, decorated with a band of running foliage. The upper stage features a balustrade and modillioned cornice, with a wide opening of five semicircular-headed arches with keystones on ringed columns (possibly cast-iron) behind glazing, and an iron guard rail in front with a scallop pattern.

The south-west elevation is of two wide bays, with six segmental-headed windows on the first floor and three on the ground floor. A square projecting bay window with corner pilasters extends from this elevation. A single-storey block at the north-west corner uses similar detailing.

Interior

The entrance lobby features an infill screen with two free-standing Corinthian columns against similar pilasters, with fourteen glazed panels above and a floor of encaustic tiles. The ceiling displays an elaborate rose and cornice with lions' heads. The entrance hall contains four pedimented doorcases, each with nine-panel doors and panelled reveals and soffits. An imperial staircase rises with heavy cylindrical decorated newels and ball finials, with a balustrade of pierced metal panels mounted on tread-ends.

The present dining room to the north-west has a door with eared architraves. It is of three bays, the centre opening to a bay window. Fluted Tuscan pilasters support brackets and ceiling beams. A panelled plaster ceiling with a circular central motif and pendants is complemented by a frieze of painted plaster with ribboned swags and a central female head motif on each side. A purple marble fireplace with lateral consoles and an elaborate fluted Corinthian overmantel with four columns feature a central segmental pediment enclosing a quartered shield inscribed with the date 1885 and the initials MEG and JRP (John Robson Pattrick, the owner).

A room to the south-east has an Adamesque ceiling with a circular motif and a slightly coved frieze with swags and foliage. Two further rooms to the south-east, now linked, include one with a coved plaster ceiling decorated with grotesques and naturalistic birds. Two marble fireplaces with mantel shelves are present: one with consoles and another with an eared architrave and consoles.