Royal Hop Pole Hotel

Hotel. Late 15th century, refronted and extended in the late 18th century. The building comprises two formerly separate structures: a 15th-century house to the right and a late 18th-century coaching inn to the left. Although described separately below, the exterior treatments are distinct, but the interior is treated as a unified whole with many interconnections.

The 15th-century House

The house is constructed with box framing and brick panels, tile roof, and brick stacks. It forms a three-storey, two-bay structure with double jetties to the street, covering a throughway to the right, and incorporates a hall range at the back with later extensions.

The front elevation presents two bays with two-light gabled dormers featuring bargeboards, positioned above shallow five-light casements at second floor and deep four-light casements with transom at first floor; all windows are set to the outer edges of the framing. The ground floor is underbuilt and brought forward, with two sets of five-light windows with transom and four-centred heads. To the right is a broad opening with a pair of plank doors beneath a 15th-century flat-arched lintel with carved spandrels.

Within the throughway, approximately 1.5 metres back from the doors, a moulded beam is carried on a heavy free-standing post with spandrel-carved brackets; this was formerly the bressumer carrying the first-floor jetty. A further pair of braced posts with beams and chamfered joists running to stops can be seen. The wall to the left is heavy braced framing containing a 17th-century six-panel, part-glazed door set in a 15th-century four-centred head. The back of the range is box-framed, and beyond it lies the former hall block with steep tiled roof and large square ridge stack in early brickwork. Further late wings extend deep into the burgage plot.

The 18th-century Inn

The inn is a brick structure of three storeys and basement, arranged as one bay plus three bays. The left bay, added soon after the main build, has sashes at second floor (presumably originally eight-pane but now lacking the central vertical glazing bar). At first and ground floors are large tripartite plate-glass sashes. The bay is contained within full-height V-joint pilasters with a floating modillion cornice under a blocking course and coped parapet. The main block is detailed similarly but without the pilasters, featuring eight-pane sashes at second floor and tripartite glazing-bar sashes below (except to the left of the door, which has plate glass). All windows sit under V-joint splayed lintels on stone cills with small brackets. A small plinth is present, and a grille with pavement access to the cellar is located to the left of the door.

The central entrance comprises a set-back pair of panelled doors with panelled side-lights and transom-light, panelled reveals and pilasters, all approached by three stone steps. A large square flat canopy functioning as a porte-cochere spans the pavement, with a moulded edge and is carried on two very slender iron Ionic columns. Above the canopy, a wrought-iron overthrow displays the Arms of George III. To the right of the door is a panel recording a visit by Mr. Pickwick, inscribed "At the Hop Pole, Tewkesbury, they stopped to dine...". A large brick ridge stack stands to the left at the party wall between bays one and two.

At the rear is a full-height, wide-gabled wing to the right with wavy bargeboards and tripartite sashes under stopped drips at first and second floors. The ground floor has flat-roofed extensions. To the left of a narrow courtyard stands a lower wing with low-pitched slate roof.

Interior

The principal architectural interest lies in the framed unit, which contains a large open room at the front at both ground and first floors. At ground floor is an early timber fire surround with brattished overmantel above a segmental arch with ogee braces on small colonnettes. The compartmental ceiling features moulded beams; near the street front are two moulded bressumers, the inner one retaining mortices for the former outer wall. The upper room has beams with slight chamfer and chamfered soffit-ribs. A tight 17th-century open-well stair is present.

Considerable framing is evident throughout this block, including a roof with two ranges of wind-bracing in the back slope and a central arch-braced truss (formerly with boss). This first-floor room originally had traceried heads to three-light 15th-century windows, replaced in the 17th century. The hall range has been subdivided and was not generally accessible, but the Victoria County History records richly moulded 16th-century joists and an inserted 16th-century brick stack and fireplace.

In the 18th-century building, the former cobbled throughway is now enclosed with a glazed skylight (covered internally by a tarpaulin) above the reception area. To the left is the stair hall containing a fine square open-well stair with stick balusters to a continuous swept mahogany handrail. In the rear sections, some 20th-century non-conforming timber-framing is present.

Between first and second floors, a secondary painted stair has a solid string, Doric newels, heavy handrail, and flat fluted balusters. The cellars feature heavy beams to the ceilings; beneath the central lobby is a segmental brick vault. Floors are brick; the staircase has been replaced in concrete. The cellar under the earlier section was not accessible for inspection.

The Royal Hop Pole Hotel is a rambling complex of buildings, though its earliest section represents one of the more important timber-framed survivals in the town.