Baring Hall Hotel and associated stable block

Baring Hall Hotel and Associated Stable Block

Public house and stabling block, built 1881-1882 to the designs of Ernest Newton, with remodelling undertaken later in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The building is constructed of red brick with applied render, cast-iron railings and a plain tile roof. The plan comprises a central servery with four separate bar areas, all with openings to allow circulation between them. Connected to the west side of the L-shaped original building is a single-storey block, probably originally a billiard room, added by 1897. A toilet block was built against its west end in 1925, with a connecting lobby area. Kitchens and storage areas occupy most of the northern side of the ground floor. Domestic accommodation and hotel rooms are arranged over the two upper floors. A stabling block and yard is set to the rear on the north side, accessed via Baring Road, with a car parking area to the west on Downham Way.

The exterior displays a restrained but varied composition bearing the influence of Norman Shaw's domestic work of the 1870s, characteristic of Newton's earliest designs. The building is composed of two storeys with an attic level set under a hipped roof with gabled dormers, tall ridge stacks and a moulded eaves cornice. The principal frontage faces east onto Baring Road. This has a shallow first-floor terrace with an ornate cast-iron balustrade above the arched entrance doorway and three windows to its left. Original drawings indicate this was intended as a projecting balcony, but it appears either to have been under-built during an early secondary phase, as shown in photographs from around 1895, or was modified during the original construction process. To the right of the entrance is a projecting gable bay, rendered between the windows, which rises through to the attic level. Both street-facing elevations are rendered with channelled rustication beneath sill level, principally featuring windows with round-headed lights at street level, multi-paned sashes set under cambered brick heads to the first floor and casements to the gabled dormers above. The north elevation has a narrow single-storey extension, which has now been partially removed as of 2018.

To the Downham Way elevation there is a side entrance with an open-pedimented doorcase set on brackets, apparently created during the 1890s along with flanking windows. Two further arched windows and a dormer at attic level feature above. Further west along Downham Way is a rendered brick single-storey annexe, added by 1897, which continues the rendered channelled rustication beneath the windows. Five windows are positioned to the east side, the one closest to the main range being wider and distinguished by its arched head, presumably originally serving as a separate entrance to this section. The west end incorporates a part-rendered brick toilet block of 1925 and a further subsequent addition of matching form with high-level windows and a blocked doorway to the street.

A gabled red-brick stabling block belonging to the original phase is set to the rear of the pub on the north-west side, accessed via a gated passage on the north side of the building from Baring Road. It is currently in poor condition with failing brickwork and a partially collapsed roof structure.

The interior at ground-floor level contains three bar rooms of the original portion arranged around the central servery. This arrangement appears to have been introduced in the 1890s as a modification to Newton's original plan during the building's enlargement; some fittings date from this secondary phase, although the arrangement was subsequently revised after 1925 to elongate the bar counter along Downham Way and shorten that along Baring Road, reusing the 1890s fittings. Notable elements of the 1890s work include the tapered bar counter with tongue-and-groove panels set between thin fluted pilasters, bar back shelving with some remaining inset mirror panels and carved brackets, and tongue-and-groove dado panelling. A portion of an iron-framed and glazed screen survives in the southern Downham Way room. 19th-century floorboards are retained in all bar rooms. The full-height fielded panelling in the northern bar room fronting onto Baring Road is of later 20th-century date. Throughout the ground floor a series of openings have been introduced between the bar rooms to allow internal circulation. Separated from the public rooms are a storeroom and office area set behind the servery and a kitchen positioned behind the single-storey hall to the north side.

To the west, extending along Downham Way, is what was probably originally a billiards room, added by 1897, now serving as a dining and function area. This has an original slatted-timber ceiling with a central hipped roof light and sections of tongue-and-groove dado-level panelling to the north and east walls. An opening on the north side gives access to the kitchens via a hatch and service doors. Part of the west side of the hall has been screened off with a part-glazed partition giving access to a private staff area. A toilet block added in 1925 is accessed via a plain hallway to the west.

The ground-floor bar rooms on the south side and the servery retain scorch marks and smoke blackening from fire damage sustained in 2009. The ceiling in the bar room has been patched and the glazed partition at the western end of the former billiard room dividing it from the staff area has been replaced. The upper rooms were not inspected internally.