Rock House Hotel

The Rock House Hotel is an early to mid-19th century hotel located on Eastern Beach in Lynmouth. The building is composed of two main sections. The slightly older part is a single-depth, two-storey block with gabled ends. Attached to this at its eastern corner is a larger, L-shaped range with a low-pitched hipped roof and deep eaves, facing the gardens. A two-storey, flat-roofed range has been added to the outer angle between the two units.

The earlier range has three windows, each with 2-light cast-iron casements featuring a central mullion, 4-centred heads and Y-tracery. The first-floor windows are within small open gablets. Gable stacks feature paired diagonal brick shafts, and the river-facing return has a large painted replica light above a single-storey extension with a monopitch roof.

The main, inland-facing range has sash windows. The entrance front has a two-and-a-half-pane window above an arched doorway with a 20th-century door, and two 20-pane windows. Another section of the frontage has a large 12-pane window reaching floor level, a canted bay with French doors and margin bars, and a matching canted bay to the rear.

A thatched verandah roof covers three sides of the ground floor, supported by small, square 20th-century timber posts. The thatch is slightly inflected over the windows on the inland face, although a section over the entrance door has been replaced with corrugated plastic. There are two brick stacks, one broad and central, and another smaller to the rear.

The interiors of the two principal rooms, facing southeast, retain white marble fireplaces. One room suffered water damage in 1993, while the other has a fine scrolled plaster ceiling cornice and central rose. The canted bays have panelled linings and soffits. Panelled doors are set within reeded architraves decorated with paterae.

Historically, the hotel’s gardens extended further to the southwest, but were reduced when the riverbed was realigned following the 1952 flood. The site is now supported by a stone retaining wall on that side. The building is a characteristic example of the Picturesque style.