Kings Arms Royal Hotel

The Kings Arms Royal Hotel, with two shops, is a largely 18th-century building with some earlier fabric, and later 19th and 20th-century alterations. A coaching house previously occupied this site, and in 1698, Peter the Great stayed at the location.

The building is constructed of red brick in Flemish bond, with vitreous tile headers, and has a plain tile roof. It is three storeys high, with eleven bays. The end bays project, and the central five bays are topped by a pediment. It includes a plinth, platbands between floors, a stepped brick cornice broken in the centre below the pediment, and a parapet with raised pilasters and a stepped top which is broken by the pediment. The windows have segmental brick arches with dropped keystones, projecting sills, and sashes with glazing bars. The upper-floor sashes have nine panes, and are unequally-hung.

The central entrance is recessed with an eight-panel door in a Tuscan porch with columns and rear pilasters, surmounted by an entablature with a modillion cornice. Above the entrance is a wrought-iron balcony with scrolled panels, a French window, and a tall round-arched window with glazing bars, a keystone and imposts. A basket-arched carriageway has imposts and a keystone to the first bay. Bays eight to eleven have a 20th-century shop front. A hotel sign hangs from an iron bracket between bays three and four. Decorative rainwater heads are dated 1753. Various stacks are also present.

At the rear, a two-bay late 18th-century block extends from bays two and three. A two-storey wing of two builds runs to the rear of bays six and seven, three bays deep. The two bays closest to the main range have large sashes with glazing bars under segmental soldier-brick arches, flanking a blocked ground floor doorway. The end bay has similar sashes, but without arches, and mathematical tiling to the upper part of the first floor, giving the impression of Flemish bond brickwork to the side wall. The end wall is tile-hung.

The ground floor interior has 19th-century panelling, architraves and fireplaces, and a first-floor staircase. There is 17th-century panelling in a partition between rooms and a rear corridor, and in a left-hand room which features a Tudor-arched stone fireplace with the initials ‘K’ and ‘A’ in the spandrels. The steps up to this room have an 18th-century-style columnar newel, and the doors leading into the front rooms are also of an 18th-century style, suggesting a possible 18th-century refurbishment of the 17th-century panelling. The front rooms have cornices. Two large-panelled timber-framed cross-walls are situated at the right end of the first floor.

On the second floor, a large-panelled partition wall is present between rooms and a rear corridor, featuring a keyed arch, a keyed architrave to the stair door, and panelled jambs to a former window in the rear wall. The rooms have plain panelling and cornices.