66, High Street

The building at 66 High Street, Tewkesbury, is a hotel dating to around 1800. Originally known as the Moffat Hotel and later the Riverside Hotel, it’s constructed of Flemish bond brickwork, with a tile roof and brick stacks. The house is set back from the street and features a double-depth plan with a projecting staircase bay centrally located at the rear. It has three storeys and a basement and originally had five windows on the front elevation. The upper floors feature 6-pane sashes at the second floor, 12-pane sashes at the first floor, and plate-glass sashes to the ground floor, all set within brick voussoirs and stone cills. The main entrance is centrally positioned with a wide segmental-arched opening containing a pair of 3-panel fielded doors set within fluted Doric pilasters and quarter-columns, surmounted by an entablature and decorative fanlight, accessed by three slate steps. To the left of the main entrance is a further panelled door with a rectangular transom-light featuring decorative elements similar to the fanlight above the main entrance. Blocked basement openings are visible in the plinth. The ground-floor brickwork is painted, with a cill band at first floor level. A richly moulded stone cornice returns at the ends, topped with a blocking course and coping. Two brick stacks are present on each party wall.

The rear elevation incorporates a central, half-cylindrical, full-height bay with a large arched 12-pane sash with fanlight, flanked by two windows on each side; the upper windows are 6-pane at the second floor and 12-pane at the first floor. The ground floor at the rear is obscured by later extensions.

The interior includes a wide elliptical opening, now filled, set back from the main doors, leading to the main stair hall, which is paved with geometrical Minton tiles. A grand stone staircase, incorporating scrolled tread-ends, stick balusters, and a mahogany swept and wreathed handrail, rises in a semicircular well, incorporating a glazing-bar sash. Fine cornices and friezes with ox-head motifs are present at ground and first-floor levels. A secondary staircase, located to the left, rises through the full height of the building, constructed of painted softwood with stick balusters, turned and tapered newels, a moulded string, and a swept handrail. Some balusters have been replaced with flat panels, particularly on the upper floor flights. Original 6-panel fielded doors with reeded doorcases, stopped with varied lion-heads, anthemion or shell motifs are a notable feature. While many rooms have been altered, the first-floor rear retains its decorative cornice and much original detail. The building represents a good example of its period, showing burgeoning Greek influences in its detail, and is in need of modest conservation work to restore it to its original grandeur.