The Bear Hotel

CHIPPENHAM

ST9273SW MARKET PLACE 930-1/10/94 (South side) 22/06/78 No.12 The Bear Hotel

GV II

Hotel. c1850 remodelling of earlier property, with some C18 fabric to rear. Coursed Limestone rubble with freestone dressings, stone slate roof, brick stacks with octagonal ashlar shafts to gable ends. Tudor Revival style. Double-depth plan with rear wings flanking courtyard. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attics; symmetrical 3-window range. 3 forward-facing gables with tall cone-and-ball finials are articulated by full-height semi-octagonal buttresses with similar finials above the linking parapet. Hoodmoulds to paired Tudor-arched sash windows with switch tracery tops; cinquefoil heads to windows above the door. 2 canted bays with hipped off-set stone roofs to the ground floor. The central projecting porch has columns similar to the buttresses supporting wide Tudor arches to front and sides. A stone bear stands on a plinth to the centre. The sash windows above the porch have cinquefoil heads. The right return, also in the Market Place, is 4-window range with forward-facing gables to each end, that to the left with stack to the apex and entrance below, that to the right with a finial and quatrefoil over a 2-light window to the 2nd floor and one of 3-lights to the 1st floor over a hoodmould to a gateway. INTERIOR: dogleg central staircase with turned balusters and C19 joinery including 4-panel doors. HISTORY: a house on the site called Orwell House, originally built in the mid C18 by John Provis, was still in occupation in 1812.

Listing NGR: ST9218073179