The White Horse Hotel

THE WHITE HORSE HOTEL

An inn dating from the late 15th or early 16th century, built on the site of an earlier medieval inn of which stone cellars survive. The building has undergone alterations in the 18th century, early 19th century and later periods.

The principal structure comprises a three-storey frontage of four bays with timber framing, brick and tile hanging. A carriageway in the left-hand bay leads through to a long, narrow yard. A staircase provides access to the upper floors of the front block and to a long three-storey range at the rear, now used as hotel rooms. This rear range would originally have contained the inn chambers, arranged on three levels and accessed by an unwalled walkway at ground floor (now enclosed) and by open galleries above, also enclosed. This range is followed by a deeper two-storey block and then a three-storey extension of circa 1960, which is not of special interest. At the end of the yard stands a long two-storey stable block.

The front elevation displays an 18th-century brick façade with a painted render finish, featuring banded rustication to the ground floor and plain strings to the first and second-floor levels. The upper floor windows are segmental-headed with keystones and six-over-six pane sashes, though the upper-floor examples are later replacements. A moulded and dentilled timber eaves cornice crowns the façade, with a steeply pitched half-hipped roof carrying three dormers with casement windows. The east wall of the carriageway passage retains visible timber framing. The long three-storey former lodging range facing the yard has an early 19th-century glazed timber infill at ground floor; the galleries above feature casement windows and horizontal sliding timber shutters of 18th-century appearance. Sash windows light the rear elevation. The following range is of brick with modern timber sash and casement windows. A three-storey extension of circa 1960 at the northernmost end of the yard range is not of special interest.

The lower cellar walls are of coursed stone and flintwork, with parts of brick vaulting also visible. The remains of a Gothic window are understood to survive. The front ground-floor room displays exposed high-quality timber framing with bracing of exceptional size. This room opens into an elegant early to mid 18th-century open-well staircase with a close-string, slender turned balusters, a moulded ramped handrail and dado panelling. The ground-floor corridor of the rear range features early 19th-century cast-iron fluted columns supporting the gallery floor above. The inner walls of this range expose timber framing at first and second-floor levels. A ground-floor room has restored timber mullioned windows on the corridor side; now open plan apart from a section of a cross partition, it displays exposed timber framing, a heavy chamfered axial beam and a brick chimneybreast on the north wall. The west wall and partition bear a series of wall paintings comprising a geometric design framed by imitation wooden panelling with foliate borders; grisaille imitation panelling with large Tudor Roses; and a much-restored interlocking strapwork pattern. These are typical of decoration from the mid 16th to early 17th century and probably form one single scheme. Behind the partition is a further, possibly later, decorative scheme of black latticework on a yellow ochre background with inset quatrefoils and floral designs. Timber framing is visible in some of the upper-floor hotel rooms; further framing may be concealed beneath modern finishes. A part-exposed chimney breast on the first floor has decorative wall painting on plaster, comprising black interlaced quatrefoils on a yellow ochre background with circular floral designs, possibly contemporary with the second decorative ground-floor scheme described above. The interior of the following two-storey block has been much altered. Upper floors have only been partly inspected. Roofs were not inspected.

The subsidiary 18th-century stable block to the rear of the yard, now converted to hotel rooms, comprises a long two-storey range of red brick laid in English bond with vitrified headers. The ground floor has been altered. Upper-floor bays are demarcated by shallow pilasters and have hay loft shutters. This range possesses important group value with the inn.

Romsey was situated on a main route between the royal and ecclesiastical centres of Winchester and Salisbury, and became an important staging post in the 18th century for travellers to London and the south west. The White Horse has been Romsey's principal inn since the medieval period and may have been a guest house for the Abbey, founded in the 9th century.

The building is of major architectural and historic significance as a well-preserved late-medieval purpose-built inn with earlier cellars, whose galleried plan form remains clearly legible. Very few galleried inns survive in anything like their original form, and therefore possess exceptional interest. The wall paintings are important examples of secular decoration, possibly spanning 200 years, and contain rare and interesting motifs. The building retains good features from later phases.