Tanton'S Hotel

Tanton's Hotel is an early 19th-century hotel situated on New Road in Bideford, prominently positioned alongside the Public Library, Town Hall, and Bridge. The building is constructed of solid rendered walls with slate roofs. The main front section has a hipped roof with a flat top, while the wings and a rear range, running parallel to the road, have pitched roofs. Two red-brick chimneys are visible on the rear range. The front of the hotel rises to three storeys in the centre, but four storeys in the centre of the front range. It has a three-window frontage, with slightly projecting wings; the left wing has three windows, and the right wing has two. The main entrance features a six-panelled door slightly offset to the right, above which is a round-headed, semi-circular niche. This niche currently holds a classical figure in armour, brandishing a sword, and it is thought to be a former ship's figurehead. Flanking the niche are flattened bow windows rising through three storeys to the bracketed eaves. The flat roof top has a patterned iron guardrail. The wings also feature similar bow windows in the second storey, except for the left wing, which has a blind window in the centre. Sashes are found throughout the building, with three panes in the ground floor windows. Upper sashes in the bow windows have six panes, with four panes in the side-lights; third-storey windows in the wings have a three-over-six pane configuration, whilst the centre section’s third and fourth-storey windows have six-paned upper sashes. The interior of the ground storey appears to have undergone significant alterations in the late 20th century. The building was shown on Wood's 1842 plan of Bideford as 'Commercial Inn'. It was subsequently referred to in directories of 1856 and 1857, sometimes described as being in New Road and at ‘Bridge end’. A photograph from 1863 identified it as Chester's Commercial and Family Hotel, at that time a three-storey building. Morris’s directory of 1870 listed the establishment under its current name, describing it as a family and commercial hotel and posting house.