The Eagle House Hotel

The Eagle House Hotel is a large detached town house built in 1764 for Coryndon Carpenter. It features red brick laid in Flemish bond, with stuccoed channelled rustications at the basement, quoins, and projecting keys above nearly flat arches, along with a stuccoed porch. The roof is made of dry Delabole slate, hipped with a modillioned pediment and eaves cornices. The building has a large brick axial stack and another stack on the right, with gabled roof dormers on the side elevations.

The hotel has a double-depth square plan, consisting of two storeys plus attics over a basement. The front is symmetrical with a 1:3:1 bay arrangement, featuring central open-pedimented bays that are slightly advanced. There is a keyed oculus in the tympanum, with a pediment surmounted by a central Grecian-style figure flanked by arms. The original windows are hornless sashes with thick glazing bars.

A central late 19th-century porch includes a Venetian-style window with Ionic columns and an entablature adorned with modillions and a moulded cornice above the original basement window. Side doors are accessed by pairs of dog-leg staircases that have oval-pierced balustrades with moulded strings and handrails, along with square newels. The rear of the building, which has been later stuccoed, features two canted bays and later sashes, while the left-hand return has an early 19th-century canted bay with its original sashes.

Inside, original features include modillion ceiling cornices in small panelled rooms to the right of the entrance hall, moulded cornices in some chambers, fielded dado panelling in the left-hand room, and panelled doors. The most impressive features are found in the stair hall, which has an open-well open-string staircase with a later fretted wood balustrade simulating iron, along with rococo plasterwork. The rear left-hand room also showcases similar plasterwork and doorways with eared architraves embellished with bead and reel motifs. The rear right-hand room boasts an early 19th-century heavily-moulded coffered ceiling. The exceptional quality of the 18th-century plasterwork is believed to be the work of the same craftsmen responsible for the plasterwork at Castle Hill House and Lawrence House.