Duke of Cornwall Hotel and Attached Forecourt Walls and Railings

The Duke of Cornwall Hotel, situated on Millbay Road in Plymouth, was built in 1865 by C Forster Hayward of London to serve passengers arriving at Millbay railway station. Constructed of coursed Plymouth limestone rubble with granite dressings, including rock-faced quoins to the tower, the hotel is topped with a steep asbestos slate roof, featuring stone gabled dormers, an elaborate terracotta modillion cornice, an iron eaves balustrade, and a clearstorey with 20th-century windows. Four prominent lateral stacks grace the front, along with tall stone stacks, some with battered bases and others featuring chamfered brick shafts and spiral terracotta pots.

The architectural style is Baronial Gothic, with a double-depth plan and an articulated front, dominated by a taller, polygonal tower on the right. The hotel has three storeys plus a two-tier attic over a basement. The front elevation presents 11 bays, incorporating a central porch, a two-storey bowed oriel with a steep conical roof, and a four-storey polygonal tower with a belvedere. The tower’s roof was reslated in 1994. The majority of the original hornless sash windows lack glazing bars and are chamfered, with transomed, two-centred arches to the ground floor, square-headed openings to the first floor, and squat, two-centred lights with column mullions and capitals to most second-floor openings. Similar mullions are found on the principal tower windows and those on the upper floors of the bay to the left of the tower. The ground floor bays are tall and buttressed, with paired brackets supporting cast-iron balconies. The bay to the left of the tower has tripartite pointed lights over ogee lights to the upper floors, also with a cast-iron balustraded balcony. The porch features a cinquefoil gable rose above triple lights over a four-light window, and is sheltered by a wood and glazed canopy. The interior of the hotel has not been inspected, but it is likely to contain notable features. The forecourt is enclosed by granite walls with a granite plinth, surmounted by cast-iron railings with urn finials and granite piers, the tops of which support iron lamps. The hotel is considered a fine example of a grand Baronial Gothic hotel, reflective of the style adopted for hotels built near major London railway termini.