Former Green Dragon Hotel Including Wall And Pier To Right

The former Green Dragon Hotel, now shops with offices above, was built in 1903 and designed by James Farley, with George Wiggs of Watford acting as the contractor. It is constructed of orange brick with orange terracotta dressings and details, topped with machine tiled roofs, brick slab stacks, and multiple square terracotta pots. The style is Free Jacobean.

The building is three storeys high with attics. It features multiple light moulded terracotta mullion and transom windows on the first and second floors and in the attic dormers. These windows have inserted metal casements with plain glazing, terracotta hoods, dripmoulds, quoins, and moulded panelled spandrels above a continuous terracotta fascia and cornice above the ground floor shops. Brick pilasters break up the frontage and frame Dutch gabled dormers with corniced pinnacles. The curved corner bay is supported at first-floor level by terracotta corbels with moulded Ionic volutes and shields. An ornamental curved terracotta pediment flanks the corner, incorporating moulded scrolls, festoons, swags, a shield displaying the date "1903," and a peacock tail finial. The ground floor facade facing Maidenhead Street was altered in 1952 and converted into shops.

The right-hand bay and corner unit, extending along The Wash, retain glazed blue-green moulded faience plinths and dados, with bowed coupled Ionic pilasters above, and low canted faience stallrisers. An Art Nouveau-style glazed tile panel is located beside the shop entrance in the right-hand bay. The moulded hardwood shop windows curve around the corner bay with square-pane upper lights. The rear elevation is of plain orange brick with sash windows, exhibiting a utilitarian character.

The interior features a major staircase with square column balusters and a moulded handrail. Public room interiors were altered during a later conversion.

To the right of the Maidenhead Street frontage stands an attached orange brick boundary wall with moulded terracotta band and copings, terminating in a square pier with a moulded terracotta cap.

The site has a history dating back to an inn established in the 16th century or earlier. In the early 19th century, the "Green Dragon Club," a Friendly Society, met at this location.