The Former Palace Hotel

The Former Palace Hotel is a late 18th century building, constructed from limestone ashlar with ashlar stacks and a slate roof. It occupies a corner plot and has a quadrant plan with a range running roughly north-west. The building rises three storeys with an attic above the curved section and includes a basement, presenting a six-window façade overall. The main, taller elevation fronts West Street along the corner. The wing in Lawford Street features lower floor heights and a blank party wall.

The ground floor of the curved section displays elaborate decoration, featuring an arcade of semi-circular arched windows and a doorway, accented by vermiculated pilasters, foliate capitals, an entablature, and a modillion cornice. The first floor showcases banded rustication, a frieze, and a cornice, incorporating pilasters with sunken panels and a central window with a balcony of turned balusters. The second floor continues the pilaster theme, with a frieze and a dentil cornice, with Assyrian-style herms flanking the central window. The wing in Lawford Street echoes the ground-floor arcading, and a frieze running along its length is inscribed "IMPORTERS OF FINE WINES AND SPIRITS/ WINE AND SPIRIT MERCHANT." Windows are distinguished by eared architraves and lion heads on the first floor, and swags above the lintels on the second floor. A steep, curved roof is flanked by tall coped walls with chimney stacks.

Inside, the ground-floor bar servery within the corner range features an arcade of semi-circular arches supported by twisted brass columns with petal-relief capitals, mirroring the façade's design. Detail includes egg and dart and dentil mouldings, and moulded fruit corbels at the arch bases. Behind the columns are pilasters with fielded panels, and the bar cornice also incorporates fielded panels. An elaborate ceiling cornice features egg and dart, flower-trellis, and grape mouldings. The north range has a lower floor level with an inserted mezzanine floor; it shares decorative motifs with the main bar. A dog-leg, closed-string staircase has square newels and fielded panelling beneath the banister. The mezzanine floor bisects the arched windows of the north range and contains lavatories, with some fielded panelling. A second staircase to the north has a simpler moulded and chamfered newel post and stick balusters. The first floor displays elaborately moulded cornices and a ceiling rose. A cast iron fireplace with red tiling and a painted slate surround with moulded corbels is found on the first floor, with a similar, less ornate fireplace on the second floor. Within the attic, the interior of a clock face is exposed and there is access to the flat roof of the north range. Solid, fielded panelled doors are present throughout the upper storeys.