Former Regency Hotel

The former Regency Hotel is a house row, originally conceived as a grand crescent, started in 1826 for James Townley. The building’s entrance front, facing St Augustine’s Road, is highly irregular and of mixed dates, constructed largely of stock brick and representing the rear of the Royal Crescent. A roughly eight-foot-high wall runs along St Augustine’s Road, originally serving as the rear boundaries of the individual house plots, with several blocked, round-headed door openings, four featuring heavily rusticated surrounds; a 20th-century canopy now covers the hotel entrance.

The south front is rendered with a slate roof. The building extends over four storeys and a basement, with the central section and end pavilions taller, incorporating attics. The facade’s treatment shows variations, reflecting the original design of twenty separate houses. Pilaster strips are present on the ground and first floors, supporting a plinth, with giant pilasters extending up to the second and third floors, topped by a balustraded parapet.

The left-hand pavilion and centrepiece have an additional attic storey, with six and seven windows respectively; the right-hand pavilion features a balustrade and two flat-roofed dormers. A large scrolled gable is located on the right return, while the left-hand pavilion has double hipped and returned roofs. Chimney stacks are arranged from left to right.

The original house units within the pavilions and centrepiece are arranged in three bays, while the ranges in between irregularly alternate between two and three bays, resulting in a total frontage of forty-nine bays. Windows on the second and third floors are mainly sashes, some retaining vertical glazing bars. French windows are located throughout the first floor, accompanied by a continuous verandah that returns to the side elevations, supported by simple rails and heart-shaped brackets. Ground-floor French windows alternate with balconies and simple swept rails leading to flights of moulded marble steps, some of which have been replaced. The central doorway is blocked. Sashes and irregularly spaced doors are found on the basement level.

The crescent was part of James Townley’s larger redevelopment plans for the barracks area west of Ramsgate, originally intended to be twice its final length.