Royal Hotel

The Royal Hotel, built between 1896 and 1897 by E. Boardman and Sons, is a former hotel that now serves as a restaurant and bar with offices. It features red brick and terra cotta panels and has slate roofs. The building is situated on an island site and consists of four storeys plus an attic storey. The principal facade, which is semi-octagonal, has six south-facing bays.

The design includes square corner turrets and dormer gables at the ends and in the central bays. The ground floor has mullion and transom windows with semi-circular moulded brick arches and a drip course. The central entrance on the south side is highlighted by a first-floor balcony supported by consoles, extending halfway across the adjacent bays. Above this entrance is a single-storey bay window featuring brick mullion and transom windows topped with a crenellated parapet.

Throughout the building, there are mullion and transom windows with side-hung casements, while the third floor is adorned with sash windows. Each dormer gable contains four sash windows, flat rubbed brick arches, and a triangular pediment above the two central windows. The central gable features blind reticulated tracery above the pediment.

On the left-hand side, there are mullion and transom stair windows at half-floor level, set within a recess that has moulded brick jambs and a semi-circular head with blind tracery. The square turrets flanking the end and central dormer gables are accentuated by windows set within paired arched recesses, which have moulded brick jambs and square, decorated aprons beneath the windows.

The corners of the building are marked by twisted brick pilasters that terminate at the cornice level, with small octagonal turrets featuring blind tracery above. A heavy cornice supports tripartite arches and a vegetal frieze, leading to a parapet. Between each corner turret and dormer gable, there are four hipped-roof dormers, while the turrets are topped with pyramidal roofs and finials, along with lead conical roofs on the octagonal turrets.