Prince Regent Hotel, Victoria Terrace

Prince Regent Hotel, Victoria Terrace, Weymouth

This hotel was built in 1855–56 and occupies the central unit of a terrace on the Esplanade, with residential units to the left and right. The building is constructed of Portland ashlar on the front elevation, with rendered returns and brickwork to the service block in Victoria Street, and has slate roofs. It is shown on the Ordnance Survey map as Burdon Hotel.

The main front block rises to four storeys with an attic and basement. A single-storey corridor connects it to a full-width service block and ballroom at the rear, which stands two storeys high but is set at the lower level of Victoria Street, which runs parallel to the Esplanade. Although built at the same time as the adjacent wings, the Esplanade front is distinctly different in character, looking forward to Victorian style rather than back to the Regency period.

The front elevation is composed of 2+3+2 windows with the middle section stepped slightly forward and featuring a full attic. All windows are sashes, either four-paned or plain. At attic level, two two-light dormers with arched lights and slightly cambered roofing flank a raised ashlar attic containing grouped 2+3+2 arched sashes. The second and third floors have two paired sashes in the wings and grouped 2+3+2 sashes to the centre; those at second floor have moulded floating cornices. The lower two floors and basement feature canted bays with balustraded tops. The centre has a triple sash at first-floor level above a bold square portico supported on paired columns on pedestals, with pilaster responds and approached by six steps. The portico has a plain architrave and balcony balustrade. Central 20th-century doors sit under a transom light, flanked by side sashes. Spearhead cast-iron railings run the full width and are returned at the ends, stopping at the portico column pedestals. Cill bands mark the ground and third floors, and moulded cornices run full width, carried around the bays above the ground and first floors. The central unit has a plain frieze and cornice on heavy modillions; the lower wings have cement-rendered blocking-courses. Rusticated quoins mark the ends and the centre unit. Six large stacks rise from the double-ridged roof.

The rear elevation is largely concealed by the lower building but is rendered and includes various dormers. The rear service block extends for nine bays. The ground floor is in ashlar with rubble returns and comprises a series of segmental arches with flush voussoirs over wide plank doors to plain surrounds, except the centre bay which is open as a through-way to the main building. Above, the brickwork is divided by pilasters, with each bay containing a deep two-light casement with transom and horizontal bars beneath segmental heads, sitting on a sill band with aprons below. A keystone is carried through as a brick pilaster to the entablature below the hipped eaves roof. The inner wall facing the main range includes two large hipped canted bay windows with sashes featuring only horizontal bars, which light the ballroom.

The interior follows a two-room depth plan with a continuous central corridor and staircase. A lift-shaft has been inserted at the rear, left of the lobby. The entrance lobby features a modillion cornice and opens to the central corridor and stairwell through an elliptical arch on panelled pilasters with a panelled soffit. The principal ground-floor room to the left has an egg-and-dart cornice and an Adamesque fireplace; the room to the right contains a heavy stone Victorian fireplace with consoles. The formerly open-well staircase has quarter landings and some winders, with Doric newels, stick balusters, and a large wreathed handrail. A top landing has an arched sash with very slender glazing bars. A second staircase is located at the centre front of the building in the top storeys. Many panelled doors survive. The ballroom has a suspended late 20th-century ceiling, but the original barrel-vaulted ceiling is said to remain above.

The Prince Regent Hotel forms the emphasised central unit of this early Victorian terrace, which has been very little modified externally, including its attached rear range. With its stone frontage, it is one of the finest presented units on the sea-front.