The Crown Hotel

The Crown Hotel is a large inn located in Great Faringdon Market Place, dating from the early to mid 17th century, with a refronting in the mid 18th century. The building is constructed of rubble stone and likely originally included Portwell House to the east. It stands three stories high with an attic, featuring a steep stone tiled roof and two renewed large chimney stacks with diagonal brick shafts on stone bases. The front has a roughcast finish with a parapet and a stone band above the first floor, along with painted angle quoins and plain window surrounds.

The hotel has a five-window range, with a semi-basement on the ground floor that includes one small sash window and two three-light stone mullioned windows flanking a stone doorway with a four-centred arch and an original plank door. An early 18th-century Doric porch with two columns and pilaster responds leads to the entrance, which has panelled wood framing. The first floor has four windows, while the second floor has five glazing bar sash windows.

On the east side, there is a large carriage arch with a stone four-centred arch that is single chamfered. The rear features a later 17th-century external staircase with a closed string, turned balusters, and a moulded rail, along with a 17th-century stone arched doorway to the basement with a plank door. Inside, the first-floor front room has an early 17th-century plaster ceiling with shallow relief interlaced lines and foliage.

The rear courtyard includes a stuccoed two-storey 18th-century west range with a modern tiled roof, deep coved cornice, and a six-window range at the first floor, along with three earlier 18th-century windows at the south end. There is a 19th-century verandah on the ground floor at the rear of the main front range. The north side of the courtyard features early 18th-century stuccoed rubble stone with a steep pitched stone tiled roof, one segment-headed dormer, and a four-window range of segment-headed glazing bar sash windows, with one window removed at the first floor and one converted to a door at the ground floor. The east side of the courtyard is part of Portwell House, which adjoins the hotel.