Black Dog Public House

The Black Dog Public House is a late 16th and 17th century inn located in Weymouth. The building backs onto two ranges around a narrow central courtyard, and is now enclosed to the rear by buildings in Charlotte Place.

The exterior is rendered, with some exposed timber framing and a slate roof. The front range, facing St Mary Street, has a wide flush gable to the left with a three-light stone mullioned casement window beneath a stopped label course, above a canted 19th-century oriel with a slated hipped roof and plain sash windows separated by pilasters, and a small, panelled skirt. The ground floor features a display window. To the right, the eaves of the roof have two four-pane sash windows on each level, set in reveals with moulded architraves; the ground floor windows are almost square. A fine panelled door is set within a pilaster doorcase with a frieze and cornice, and the floor level is below the current pavement height. There is a brick stack to each gable end. The face gable has a saddle-back coping with a finial base, set on modelled kneelers. The rear of the building is largely hidden by later constructions, but access is available through a narrow passageway from Charlotte Place to an early panelled door.

The ground floor is at a lower level than the street and has a low-pitched roof. At the rear, to the left, is a tight wooden winder staircase and a wall constructed of large stone blocks, incorporating a chamfered beam. The front right room contains a beam with a rough chamfer, and various early joists are present. The rear left contains a wide bressumer fireplace with lamb's tongue stops on chamfered stone jambs, and a stone four-light recessed hollow-mould mullion casement window – although this is no longer on an external wall. The rear courtyard is stone-paved. The first floor includes a bolection-mould fireplace surround. Above this are three 17th-century plaster panels. Previous records indicated a jettied first floor and roof structure with cambered collars.

The building is a rare survival from its period in this street, notable for its small vertical scale in comparison to the surrounding 19th-century buildings. It was originally built as an inn in the late 16th century.