Tudor Hotel

The Tudor Hotel is a hotel, formerly a large private house. The mid-16th-century front block was internally remodelled and extended with wings in the early 17th century. It underwent alterations in the early and mid-18th century and was refaced in the late 19th century. The building is constructed of close-studded braced timber-framing with plastered panels, some brickwork, tile roofs, and brick stacks.

The plan comprises a lofty but shallow front block with a narrow central lobby flanked by single-depth rooms on either side. To the left is an early 17th-century staircase, with an extended mid-18th-century staircase positioned centrally. In the right-hand wing is a large panelled room described by the Victoria County History as "suggestive of a hall". This block was refronted to the street in brickwork in 1701, then further refronted with 'applied' timber framing in the late 19th century. Two long wings were added at the rear early in the 17th century, enclosing a narrow courtyard; the left wing was extended in brickwork in the later 18th century. At the rear of the right wing, returned from it at right angles, is a 19th-century brick and tile service block with its gable facing Red Lane. This service block, together with the wing, encloses a small courtyard contained by a wall with a gateway.

The street block rises three storeys plus attic and basement, with five windows across. All windows are two-light leaded casements with transoms, set in moulded architraves with simple wood cills. To the left of the central entrance are two basement openings in a high rendered plinth; one is a recessed-chamfer stone-mullioned casement. The 18th-century six-panelled fielded door sits in panelled reveals, approached by two steps. It has a deep projecting segmental hood with moulded edge over a frieze, carried on two slender wooden Doric columns on high stone pedestals, the whole forming a porte-cochere over the pavement. Weathered moulded wood string courses run above the ground and first-floor windows, returned to the right gable. Above the central first-floor window is a moulded broken pediment. The prominent modillion eaves cornice returns to the hipped end on the right. Four lead downpipes with decorative hopper-heads carrying the date 1701 are flush with the wall face, having been set to the earlier brick front. Brick stacks stand at the left gable and to the rear of the hipped end.

The right-hand end has a two-light gabled dormer with moulded barges and eaves, with two two-light transomed leaded casements at second floor. A very small light at first floor sits above a six-panel fielded door in a moulded architrave. The two-storey lower wing, flush with the gable end, is constructed in square panel framing with painted brick. A continuous run of ten two-light leaded casements under a moulded eaves runs above one very large five-plus-five-light casement with two transoms, positioned far left at ground floor. To its right is an early studded plank door in an ovolo-mould surround, with a smaller door and light beyond. A very large brick ridge stack stands near the right end.

From the end of this wing, a two-storey brick and tile service wing projects to a gabled end in Red Lane. This has a two-light opening above a square loading door and a pair of plank carriage doors to a segmental brick head, with a six-pane casement to its left. The long wall includes a blank brick panel with a haunched arch, above a fine plank and nail-head door with an attached light, flanked by a six-pane casement on each side.

At the rear, the central gable of three, with two small lights, sits above a large 24-pane sash with brick arched head having three keys, in a brick wall brought forward from the plane of the gable, with a leaded flat roof. The wings, both framed, have various windows. The right wing has two wide gables with three-light casements, and a canted flat-roofed bay with eight:twelve:eight-pane sashes. The outer end is extended in brickwork, with a full-height bow in header bricks to a parapet and hipped roof. The bow has three 12-pane sashes above three small two-light casements, and in the left return are two arched openings with doors. The left wing has a six-panel fielded door on steps and under a hood on carved brackets, a further door at ground level, and an outer gable rebuilt in brick.

Inside, the early front block has a narrow central lobby with a single room on each side. The left room has full-height 17th-century panelling, including window reveals, and a four-compartment joisted ceiling with a very heavy central beam; the fireplace is a 20th-century replacement. To the right, the room is subdivided but retains 18th-century painted fielded panelling. A wide elliptical moulded arch with five keys and panelled pilasters leads to the main staircase, probably dating from around 1740. This is a fine staircase with three slender turned balusters to each tread, with scrolled ends, a swept and wreathed handrail, and fielded dado panelling. The ground floor ceiling has a heavy cornice with egg-and-dart moulding, and the upper ceiling, which is almost square, has a fine modillion cornice. Two further embellished elliptical openings lead from the ground floor; the left one gives access to the compartment containing a 17th-century dogleg staircase with heavy moulded string, balusters, and moulded handrail to square newels with ball finials and drops. This staircase is contained at each level in an open framework of jointed timber members, and one panel is filled with woven hazel laths, with a 'flying landing' at the top level. A flight descends to the basement, which has, to the rear, a large compartment with brick walls and a wide segmental brick vault on a neat stone-flagged floor.

To the right, at a lower level, is the so-called Court Room, a lofty hall-like space with 17th-century panelling to two-thirds height, a central chamfered beam, and a broad plank external door to the garden courtyard. The first-floor main landing also has elliptical openings similar to those below, but on fluted pilasters. At the junction with the right wing, running through the two upper floors, is an 18th-century winder staircase with painted solid string, plain square newels, turned balusters (some twisted), and moulded handrail. A further 18th-century straight-flight painted staircase is located in the right wing. There are many 17th-century eight-panel doors and some 18th-century fielded-panel doors throughout the building, and sections of heavy timber-framing, including very large chamfered beams.

Above the Court Room is a smaller room with a very low joisted ceiling in four compartments, and a wide fireplace with plain stone surround and brick insert with cast-iron oven doors. A front window at second floor level has scratched graffiti, including 'Mary Burston March 17th 1604', again 'Mary Burston 1796', and 'John Oliver'; 'Oliver Cromwell' is also neatly scratched on the same pane.

This is an unusually grand building, retaining more early fabric and fittings than usual. Originally a large private house, it became a Court of Justice during James I's reign, and from 1712 to 1719 was used as a Presbyterian Academy. This is recorded on a Civic Society plaque on the front, which also notes that the Academy founder was Samuel Janes, and that Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, was a pupil. A framed document hanging in the staircase records that Thomas Kemble bought the property from Elizabeth Warkman and others in 1740 for £350. A lead cistern in the courtyard dated 1741 and inscribed K above TM presumably refers to Kemble, who died in 1776. The building figures as the Mayor's house in 'John Halifax, Gentleman', and more recently was the home of John Moore (1907-67), author of 'Portrait of Elmbury' (1947). In the small courtyard to the north is a lead cistern dated 1741, with initials TMK, probably for Thomas Kemble (died 1776). At this date it is also probable that the gazebo was built (see Red Lane).