The Woodclyffe Hostel

Originally a Working Men's Club, now in community use, this building was constructed in 1905 to the designs of architect Cole A. Adams for local benefactor Harriette C. Smith. It is built in red brick with stone dressings, a brick plinth with blue brick coping, pebble dash and terra cotta decoration, and hipped tiled roofs with brown brick chimney stacks. The structure comprises two storeys plus attic, aligned north-south with its main facade facing the north side of Church Street, and a lower range to the rear. The design is inspired by the Domestic Revival style.

The south facade features a recessed ground floor beneath a continuous wood cornice and central brick pier. To the right is a 3-light window with stone cill and an entrance door with part-glazed wood panels in a stone surround with moulded architrave and ogee arch to the lintel. To the left stands a 5-light bay window. The first floor contains four openings, three of which are 6/6 wooden sashes under gauged red brick lintels with stone cills. The second opening from the left is blind brick with ornate Baroque decoration in terra cotta bearing the lettering "THE WOODCLYFFE HOSTEL FOUNDED AD 1905". To the east, a pair of decorative iron brackets supports an iron rod from which hangs an oxidised copper sign with decorative border and lettering reading "THE WOODCLYFFE HOSTEL". Above this floor runs a continuous pebble dash frieze with geometric patterns, topped by a shallow wood cornice with dentil eaves. The hipped roof features a central pair of gabled dormers, each with a pair of leaded light casements and a central sundial.

To the east stands a brick gate pier capped with stone coping and a large stone ball. The front range of the east elevation continues the frieze and cornice, with a corbelled chimney breast at first floor level. Flanking this are leaded lights within shouldered stone architraves, the larger one to the left inscribed "exact position of antient light in old cottage which stood here until 1904". There are 2-light sash windows, paired angled brick chimneys, and a flat roof dormer with 2 leaded lights to the hipped roof. Further north, a single-bay, three-storey tower is framed by brick pilasters and capped with a high curved parapet. This bay features a full-height sash window lighting the stair, with small leaded panes and a rounded fanlight all under a keystone. Above are paired smaller sashes with leaded panes; the pair to the second floor have terra cotta aprons. The rear range is plainer with a hipped slate roof, first-floor brick band, tall 12/12 sashes to the ground floor, and paired sashes above.

The ground floor front room contains a large wood chimneypiece inset with many Delft tiles and a cornice. Above this, the main room is panelled with a similar cornice and a smaller wood fireplace with Delft tiles. To the east is a raised niche framed with a wide ogee moulding and a wood fireplace inset with decorative tiles. A prominent staircase with turned balusters and heavy turned newels continues to attic level. The former billiard room to the rear has a herringbone wood floor and a twentieth-century inserted ceiling. Throughout the building are wood panelled doors, architraves, and cornices. Porcelain sinks are located at attic level.

Harriette C. Smith, an active promulgator of the Temperance Movement, funded this building along with her husband William Smith, who together funded several other buildings in Wargrave including the Grade II Woodclyffe Hall nearby. The Hostel replaced three cottages that previously occupied the site; the position of the ancient light in one of these old cottages, which stood until 1904, is commemorated by an inscription on the east elevation. A plaque records that the building served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital from December 1915 to February 1919, staffed by the Berkshire Branch of the British Red Cross Society.