Brunel House, Attached Front Railings, And Rear Horse Bazaar Structure

Brunel House, Attached Front Railings, and Rear Horse Bazaar Structure

A hotel built between 1837 and 1839, designed by R.S. Pope with I.K. Brunel. The building was substantially rebuilt behind its facade between 1982 and 1984 by Alec French Partnership. Associated features to the rear were altered in the mid-to-late 20th century.

The facade is constructed of limestone ashlar, while the offices behind use modern materials with some brick cladding. The Horse Bazaar structure is built of rubble stone with brick openings and concrete adaptation and strengthening.

The principal front elevation displays Neoclassical styling across four storeys. The facade is wide and symmetrical, comprising fifteen windows arranged across its width. Single-window pavilions project from positions one window in from each end, connected by a two-storey fluted Ionic colonnade with a full-width entablature and banded ground floor. The central five upper windows break forward beneath an attached giant tetrastyle Corinthian colonnade in antis with a raised parapet. The pavilions feature open two-storey semi-circular carriage arches with imposts, keys, and radiating voussoirs, fitted with wrought-iron two-leaf gates swept down to the middle. Above each carriage arch is a distyle-in-antis attached porch, repeated at the central bays. Behind the colonnade are segmental-headed ground-floor windows. Other window openings have architraves (eared on the upper floors) and contain 6/6-pane sashes. The colonnaded ground floor is fronted with attached wrought-iron spike-headed railings and gates.

The late 20th-century offices occupy five storeys and comprise open-plan areas, stairs, and lifts.

To the rear right, accessed through the carriage arch, are the remaining structures of the Bazaar Ride and Horse Bazaar. These include a tall brick and stone boundary wall with buttresses showing evidence of rebuilding in places. This boundary wall connects with a tall semi-circular north end forming an amphitheatre surrounding a late 20th-century garden. The structure is principally built of local stone with some brick and concrete repair work. Doorway and window openings have been reinforced with concrete. At upper level, a curved walkway extends behind the amphitheatre. Window openings with brick surrounds and stone cills are spaced across this upper level. Coping stones run along the wall head. At the north end, brick-lined apertures link to ground-floor openings.

A tall back wall curves along the walkway, functioning as a retaining wall built of stone that extends as far as the gardens of Great George Street to the north. Spaced joist holes are visible in this wall, some positioned opposite the window openings. The back wall displays an extreme batter along its curve. The west side of the walkway is interspersed with inserted concrete beams connecting the front and rear walls. Halfway along the walkway are three small steps. At the north end are a late 20th-century steel gate and steel railings to the openings. The garden, adapted in the early 1980s, contains a sculpture titled Horse and Man by Stephen Joyce, created in 1986.