The Bear Hotel

The Bear Hotel is a complex building comprising two houses, now a hotel, dating back to the 17th century, with significant additions from around 1720-30 and 1750. It is constructed of squared and coursed limestone, with the 17th-century section on the right having a later 19th-century stucco front. The roofs are gabled, covered in stone slate, with concrete tiles to parts of the rear, and feature brick end stacks. The building adopts an L-shape, incorporating a rear right wing.

The 17th-century section has a gabled front and two storeys with an attic. It features a late 19th-century two-light casement window and an early 19th-century six-pane sash above a square bay window with early to mid-18th-century six-pane sashes with thick glazing bars. The central section, dating from around 1720-30, is two storeys with an attic and a four-window range. Elaborate 18th-century wrought-iron brackets support a flat hood over 20th-century double doors set within a mid-18th-century moulded wooden architrave decorated with carvings of bears in the spandrels. Flat stone arches frame the six-pane sashes, and two early to mid-18th-century six-pane sashes with thick glazing bars are located to the right of the door. Two gabled dormers are visible on the roof. The left section, built around 1750, is three storeys with an attic and a symmetrical five-window range. A central segmental-arched carriageway has late 19th-century double doors. The windows have flat stone arches above mid-18th-century six-pane sashes with thick glazing bars, and three-pane sashes to the second floor. Raised storey bands and a coved cornice run along the facade, topped by hipped roof dormers with two-light casements.

The rear of the building features an early to mid-18th-century wing with a hipped roof and an early 19th-century canted bay window with six-pane sashes. The rear right wing consists of 18th-century and later ranges, with Welsh slate and stone slate roofs, which were remodelled in the 20th century to create kitchens and suites.

Inside, the building showcases chamfered beams and mid-18th-century panelled doors within moulded wooden architraves throughout. The 17th-century section retains a roof truss. The central range, dating from around 1720 with earlier 17th-century origins, has 17th-century beams, an arched stone fireplace with a moulded architrave and carved spandrels, an early 18th-century plaster cornice to the left, and a fine early 18th-century dog-leg staircase with winders and turned barley-sugar balusters on a closed string. The mid-18th-century section to the left contains an open fireplace with a wood bressumer, plaster cornices, and a quarter-turn staircase with winders and turned balusters on a closed string, leading from the first floor to the attic. The Bear Hotel was established in the 1750s and became a significant establishment in Woodstock, catering for visitors to Blenheim Park.