Royal Hotel And Queens Ballroom

ROYAL HOTEL AND QUEENS BALLROOM, WEYMOUTH

A hotel begun in 1897 and completed in 1899, designed by C Orlando Law. The building is constructed in red brick with Portland stone dressings, slate and lead roofs, and displays a vigorous Northern Renaissance style with Flemish details.

The main symmetrical building comprises four storeys plus attics and basement. A short return wing extends to the right, connected by a long, wide central single-storey lobby and a former carriage house to the ballroom situated across the back in Gloucester Mews. The main staircase, later fitted with a lift, sits to the left of the lobby. Bedrooms are arranged in pairs flanking full-width central corridors.

The main front features octagonal end pavilions and a central gabled bay brought slightly forward. A triumphal arch portico is flanked by large glazed verandah bays. The fenestration follows a 3:4:1:4:3 pattern across the storeys, mostly in casements. Four two-light casement dormers on each side have low pedimented fronts with returned cornice moulding. At attic level, the octagons contain small-paned lights in arched heads with decorative tympana and small paired columns to the corners, topped by blind balustrades and deep coved cornices with brackets leading to ogee-curve decorative lead cupolas. These cupolas carry small turrets with pyramidal capping and flagstaffs. The central gable is banded in brick and stonework with a terminal panel and small paired deep-set lights with pediment.

The fourth-floor windows form a continuous frieze band of two-light lights under flat elliptical arches carried on columns with lion-head corbels below the sill band. At corner turrets the treatment is simplified but retains bold cornicing. The central unit displays two deep lights with transom on a railed balcony above a two-storey curved bow.

Second-floor windows are two-light with transom and crown-like lintels, set beneath transom lights. The four openings on each side open to a continuous balcony with flat elliptical plan and iron balustrade, positioned above two bows at first-floor level. Turrets have plain sashes; the central bay contains a stone flat bow window with curved end lights and segmental heads beneath a moulded cornice.

At first floor are paired bows, each with three pairs of French windows opening to a continuous balcony with iron balustrade. Brickwork at this level is banded with stone, and each window displays three stone voussoirs. Turrets are similarly treated with two-light windows to arched heads. The central bay has a stone bow matching that at second floor.

The central portico rises on six steps with nosings and features paired Ionic columns flanking a central elliptical arch with keystone, accompanied by vertical oval oculi and a moulded cornice with balcony rail and stone balustrade above. This protects twentieth-century glazed doors with original paned side-lights and column responds echoing the outer detailing. To each side are two wide bays divided by paired pilasters, with three small-pane transom lights forming a frieze above four vertical panes. End lights are bowed with curved glass. Below the main glazing are panels of rich cast-iron work featuring sunburst and ship motifs, with open balustrades below giving light to basement windows set back beneath. Ground-floor turrets have plain sashes with pediments and canted lights connecting to the main glazing.

The return wing displays a series of two-light dormers above a stone eaves course and deep plain frieze, with several deep stacks in brick and some stone banding. A single bay with wide carriage arch is set back to the left of the street front. The rear wall contains three bays to the left of the staircase with three dormers, and a further two on the return wing. Large three-light casements with transom and segmental heads at staggered levels light the staircase, which has been raised to a lift housing. To the right are five regular bays in five storeys to parapet, with four-pane sashes to segmental heads.

The central lobby interior has four bays of compartmental ceiling with plaster moulded beams and enrichment, supported on three pairs of free-standing Ionic columns rising from high podia. This leads to a flat segmental-vaulted deep room terminating in a large stone fireplace with a dragon in high relief above the arched fire opening. The front lobby contains a fireplace in dark veined marble with mantelshelf on paired brackets. The stairwell features quarter landings, good turned newels and balustrades, and dentil cornices. At main-floor landings, wide elliptical arches provide access to corridors. Most doors are original, with six-panel arrangement (arranged as 1 over 2,1 and 2) on lower floors and four-panel above.

The former Queen's Ballroom, with Gloucester Mews frontage, is constructed in brick with some stone dressings and a hipped slate roof. It comprises one storey in seven bays divided by brick pilasters, paired at the ends, with a stepped brick eaves course. Six bays contain large arched openings with triple keystones over three-light windows with three transom levels and arched heads to the lowest lights. Stone bands to jambs are not carried through the pilasters; moulded stone sills rest on brackets. The second bay contains a wide pair of doors with small-pane side-lights and overlight beneath a moulded segmental hood on pilasters in bold Art Nouveau form. Above the door are three small six-pane lights to a continuous sill band.

The building is a forceful structure, executed in the manner of Richard Norman Shaw's more monumental work in this style, and demonstrates a characteristic late Victorian approach to urban development. A plaque on the front records that it stands on the site of the former Royal Hotel patronised by George III. Within the lobby is a stone panel set into the reception desk inscribed: "The foundation stone of the Royal Hotel Weymouth was laid on 22 April 1897 by Charles Jesty Esq., Mayor. Opened 16 May 1899."