Royal Castle Hotel

Royal Castle Hotel, Dartmouth

Pair of merchant's houses dated 1639, united and converted to an inn in the 18th century. Built for William Barnes and Joseph Cubbitt. By 1736 Barnes' house (the right one) was known as the New Inn owned by John Summers, and by 1782 John Browne had acquired Cubbitt's house. The two were already known as The Castle by this time, with late 18th-century improvements probably associated with Browne's ownership. Extensive alterations were carried out in 1840.

The building has a stucco front with mixed construction: thick party walls of local stone rubble, front and back walls of plastered timber-framing, stone rubble stacks with 19th-century brick chimneyshafts and old pots, and a slate roof.

Originally built as a pair of houses both facing onto The Quay, each with front blocks two rooms deep with stacks in their right party walls. Both houses had rear blocks behind small courtyards, and the right one at least was connected to the front block by a gallery. 17th-century fabric survives extensively on the lower two floors. The major rebuild of 1840 raised the front and rear blocks and glazed over the courtyard to house a new grand staircase and galleries. A wide passage runs from the nearly-central front doorway through the front block to the courtyard. Some original internal partitions were removed, particularly on the ground floor.

The exterior displays four storeys with attics and a symmetrical five-window front. The upper floors date from 1840, but the 17th-century structure is indicated by jettied first and second floors. The ends of the stone party walls corbel out to carry the jetties and are plastered, though in the centre wall the original date plaque is exposed, inscribed 1639 with the initials of William and Mary Barnes and Joseph and Johane Cubbitt, positioned just below the corbelling for the second-floor jetty. Because of the central stone wall, the front doorway is positioned right of centre. It is flanked by early 19th-century fluted Doric columns supporting the jetty and has an 18th-century eared stucco surround under a leafy frieze, with a five-panel door. The ground floor has 18th-century sashes: two to the left of the doorway and a triple sash to the right, all originally 12-pane sashes though the glazing bars have been removed. The first floor contains two late 18th-century large curving bay windows, each containing three 12-pane sashes. The second and third floors have a five-window front of 1840 with central blind windows and 12-pane sashes, all with stucco Tudor-style hoodmoulds. A stucco castellated parapet with decorative machicolation and end turrets for flagpoles crowns the front. The parallel roof, hipped at both ends, contains two front flat-roofed dormers with 20th-century casements. The plain rear is jettied at first-floor level, suggesting 17th-century origins.

The interior is essentially the result of the 1840 rebuild, but carpentry of the 17th-century right house is exposed at ground-floor level. Axial joists of large scantling extend from front and rear blocks with two alcoves, apparently for newel stairs. An ovolo-moulded axial beam provides evidence for a 17th-century gallery across the original courtyard. Some 17th-century pine overlapping-plank screen is reused in the bar, located in the left front room. The room above has a good original ornamental plaster ceiling of single rib design with moulded angle sprays. To the rear of the first-floor right room is a late 17th-century timber arch with keystone and capitals, possibly from a cupboard or even a blocked doorway through to No. 12 The Quay. The rest of the building is largely 19th century and includes some fine features. The covered courtyard is particularly impressive with galleries and a stick-baluster stair. Windows on each side include horned sashes. Old service bells with room numbers remain in place.

The Royal Castle Hotel is the largest building on the west side of The Quay, overlooking the Boat Float. Originally it comprised two of a group of merchants' houses built on reclaimed land as part of a Town Corporation-backed scheme to reclaim land for housing and expand the port facilities with the New Quay. This scheme began in 1585, and by the second phase in the 1630s, this was the most fashionable part of the town. The surviving 17th-century houses here are amongst the best merchants' houses of their period in Devon.