The Bear Hotel

THE BEAR HOTEL

The Bear Hotel is formed of two distinct buildings on the south-west side of the Market Place. Together with other listed buildings on the Market Place, the Market Hall, Market Cross, and the Fountain, they form a significant group.

The left-hand front dates from the late 18th century and comprises two storeys with an attic. It presents a delicate front of Bath stone raised on a projecting plinth. The stonework features angle reeded Ionic pilasters of half oval plan running the full height of the building, with moulded bases and carved capitals. A moulded cornice runs beneath a parapet with moulded coping. The roof is hipped with stone tiles and has three pedimented dormers, the central one being segmental.

Wide flanking two-storey angular bay windows contain side lights of three panes and centre lights of four panes wide, all with stone architrave surrounds. The central first-floor window displays a rectangular and diamond glazing pattern in an enriched architrave surround with a curved frieze, cornice, circular medallions, and a hanging rope swage. On the ground floor are central glazed double doors with rectangular and diamond glazing pattern and junction rosettes, set in a stone doorcase with half reeded Ionic pilasters of half oval plan. The pilasters have floral necking ornament and support an entablature with an oak leaf pattern curved frieze. The doors are approached by double curving flights of moulded stone steps with a stone retaining wall supporting a delicate wrought iron verandah porch. The porch has four-panel standards of diagonal and rectangular pattern with a similar panelled head rail and a flat curved hipped lead roof. Guard rails cross the head of the retaining wall and between standards, formed as rectangular frames with a horizontal band of circular distance pieces carried in curved rails down the sides of the steps. A good contemporary staircase with a wrought iron balustrade is visible within. The side wall of this building is of brick with chamfered stone quoins and a coved plaster cornice.

The adjoining right-hand block has an early 18th-century front applied to what is probably an earlier building of the 16th or 17th century. It is three storeys with an attic. The front features painted stucco on a projecting plinth, with rusticated treatment to the ground floor and a string at first-floor level. Chamfered quoins and a moulded cornice beneath a parapet with moulded coping are present. The hipped roof carries old tiles and has large plain rectangular chimneys. Two gabled dormer casements with architrave frames contain half-glazed doors of two bottom panels and nine panes, set under a Doric porch comprising two columns and wall pilasters with entablature. Above the porch stands a full-sized figure of a bear holding a large bunch of grapes. Two angular bay windows to the right of different sizes, with altered glazing, are each framed with Doric pilasters and entablature.

The main ground floor room of this building is supported by Tuscan wood columns carrying ceiling beams. In the far right-hand corner is an 18th-century staircase, and below it is the former buffet display cabinet with sash lights and glazing bars. The wall is lined with Dutch tiles. The room to the right of the entrance has a four-centred arched stone chimney piece.

The yard at the rear reveals portions of a 17th and 18th-century building with irregular and gabled remains of a gallery. Here stands a tall two-bay two-storey stone structure of Doric order comprising three large columns with an entablature having a triglyph frieze and modillioned cornice. This is built onto an older front and resembles a similar group of columns and entablature that formerly stood in the Market Place opposite the hotel and supported the Bear sign.

At the west end of the range of buildings fronting the yard are the former Assembly Rooms. Originally facing the Market Place and adjoining the Bear Hotel, this building was moved to its present site when the Corn Exchange was built in 1856, as documented in an old photograph held in the Town Hall. The building presents a tall early 19th-century facade of Bath stone raised on a brick basement. The front is divided into three bays by giant Doric pilasters with moulded caps and bases resting on a block string course. Three very large recessed sash windows with glazing bars intact are topped by flush keystones. The ground floor features three segmental archways with brick strings linking them and stone keystones that reach up to the block string course. Double service doors open at the centre and right; the left-hand door leads to an entrance hall accessed by glazed and panelled double doors with side lights and a segmental fanlight containing ornate ironwork.

The Bear Hotel was owned by the father of Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA, who was himself associated with the property.

The listed buildings on the south-west and south-east sides of the Market Place, together with the Market Hall, Market Cross, and Fountain, form a group. Additionally, all the listed buildings on the south-west side form a group with Numbers 1 to 18 (consecutive) Northgate Street.