Queens Hotel

CHELTENHAM

SO9422SE PROMENADE 630-1/13/765 (South East side) 12/03/55 Queen's Hotel

GV II*

Hotel. 1838. Architects, RW and C Jearrad. Built on the site of the Sherborne Spa at a cost of »47,000. Stucco over brick with slate roof. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys, 13 first-floor windows arranged 4:5:4, with 4-storey, 3-window range set back to right. Stucco detailing includes ground-floor horizontal rustication, drawn into voussoirs over window recesses, with crowns and 'VR' to keystones; deep round-arched recesses and panelled reveals to windows and entrance. Ground floor breaks forwards and is surmounted by 3/4 engaged columns with capitals modelled on those of the Temple of Jupiter, Rome, breaking forwards again to centre and with hexastyle pedimented 'portico'. Crowning dentil entablature with modillion cornice. Ground floor has mainly 3/6 windows with radial glazing bars to heads. First and second floors have mainly 6/6 sashes, taller to first floor. Third floor has 3/3 sashes. Central entrance has double, glazed doors and fanlight. INTERIOR: noted as retaining original plasterwork and joinery. A detailed description of the hotel in 1838, and a summary of its significance in an international context, can be found in Pevsner (1976) who described Queen's Hotel and 'one of the finest early Victorian English Hotels'. HISTORICAL NOTE: a notable early example of the larger hotels which were erected in some resorts before the great 'railway hotels'. The Promenade was laid out in 1818 as a tree-lined avenue from the Colonnade in the High Street to the Sherborne Spa (later named the Imperial Spa), on the site of which the Queen's Hotel now stands. By 1826 it was a carriage drive with spacious gravelled walk on either side. Notable guests to the Hotel include Edward VII (when Prince of Wales), Prince Louis Jerome Napoleon, the Rajah of Sarawak, Elgar, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The hotel opened 21 July 1838, its first lessee was Richard Liddell. It had over 120 bedrooms, 25 sitting rooms, apartments for servants, drawing rooms, coffee and billiard rooms. During the Second World War it was used as an American Services Club. Verey describes it as, 'a very strong design'. (The Buildings of England: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: London: 1970-: 140,146; Sampson A and

Blake S: A Cheltenham Companion: Cheltenham: 1993-: 69,105; Rowe G: Illustrated Cheltenham Guide: Cheltenham: 1850-1969: 22; Sampson A: The Queen's Hotel, Cheltenham: Cheltenham: 1981-; Pevsner N: A History of Building Types: London: 1976-: 177-78).

Listing NGR: SO9457122001