Central Hotel (Part)

The Central Hotel, part of a hotel building, dates from the early 19th century and was converted to offices in 1991. It features coursed clunch, flint, re-used medieval carved masonry, with gault brick dressings and a gault brick facade. The building has a slate roof and a three-storey facade with three bays. The central entrance consists of a panelled and glazed door beneath a five-vaned fanlight. The doorcase is framed by a pair of engaged Tuscan columns that support an open segmental pediment, which is decorated with dentils and guttae. To the left, there is a 20th-century shop front, and to the right, a boarded bay. The first floor is lit by three 6/6 unhorned sash windows, which are set under gauged skewback arches. The second floor has three 3/3 sash windows, also under gauged skewback arches. The roof is gabled, with internal gable-end stacks on the north and south sides. The rear of the building is mainly constructed of coursed clunch. The north gable facing Castle Street features re-used medieval fragments, including a 12th-century colonnette that rises through all storeys to the left, along with 12th-century fragments of chevron, colonnette bases, and a capital with 14th-century tracery cusps, all arranged decoratively in the gable head. The gault brick is laid in a tumbling pattern.