The Bull Hotel

The Bull Hotel is a late 18th-century, three-storey brick building located on the northeast side of High Street in Stony Stratford. It features a distinctive diaper pattern in the brickwork, a slate roof, deep eaves, and a cornice. The façade includes five windows with glazing bar sashes, painted plaster heads, and keys, along with three-light windows at both ends of the first floor. Number 66 has a small shop front with three pilasters for the door and a wide window, topped with a dentil cornice on the fascia.

There is a cambered archway leading to a yard, south of which is the hotel entrance. This entrance is flanked by large squat sash windows with multiple glazing bars. The wooden doorcase consists of two half columns supporting an entablature with a large cornice featuring billets and bead and reel detailing. Inside, the hotel has a reeded architrave, deep panelled reveals, a soffit, and a panelled door. A notable wrought iron overthrow, which is entirely riveted with coiled ends, supports a sign depicting a white shorthorn bull.

The property also includes a range of sheds and stables to the northeast, as well as a wing to the northwest that retains a Norwich Union fire insurance mark. These outbuildings have high-pitched tiled roofs and continue to Vicarage Road, separated by a large rebuilt shed. Together with the gabled brick ranges at the rear of Number 68 High Street, they form a pleasant courtyard of mixed stone and brick. The rivalry between the Cock and Bull Hotels during the coaching days is said to have inspired the metaphor.

The Bull Hotel is part of a group that includes Nos 62 to 86 (even), Nos 66A, 70A, and 86A, Nos 88 to 106 (even), and the former St Anthony Franciscan Preparatory School.