Former Griffin Hotel, Now Griffin Centre, Including Shops, Bar And First-Floor Former Assembly Room

The former Griffin Hotel, now the Griffin Centre with shops, bars, and a first-floor former Assembly Room, dates from the early to mid-19th century, incorporating earlier brickwork and a rear range likely built in the 1860s. The front is stuccoed brick with painted quoins, cornices, and bands, while the rear is stock brick with red-brick dressings. It has slate roofs and brick stacks. The building has three storeys and a long front which extends from the High Street towards the Market Place, originally thought to be two buildings. The front has a tripartite composition of three bays, followed by a three-light bow front over a late 20th-century entrance, with two bays to the right over a former carriage entrance which is now infilled with a late 20th-century shopfront. The upper floors have four-light sash windows in painted architraves, with eared detailing on the first floor and keystones above. A new central entrance leads to rear shops, and the first floor includes a former assembly room, which is indicated by round-arched windows with glazing bars and a single transom.

The rear assembly room, stylistically of the 1860s, features elaborate plaster decoration. It is lozenge-shaped, with an arcade on the inner wall matching the fenestration opposite, and featuring pilasters and round arches supporting plaster heads. The ceiling is largely tripartite, composed of a circle flanked by two diamonds, with a central rosette. A doorcase has a pediment and moulded architrave.

The Griffin occupies a prominent location at the entrance to Kingston’s Market Square and is recognizably a former coaching inn of early origins. In 1851, it was taken over by John Williams, who established the assembly room to the rear.