Crown Hotel

Crown Hotel

Hotel, formerly comprising separate properties, dating from around 1760 with early 19th-century additions. The building is constructed of rendered or whitewashed rubble with slate roofs.

The hotel forms an irregular T-plan with courtyards to the north and east. The main building is a long gabled range facing north, set well back from Market Street at the point where the street takes a right-angled turn. To the right of this range is a small lower block abutting Sinai Hill, and a third block is positioned near the junction between these two, partially enclosing the forecourt. (The building formerly listed as Crown Stores is no longer part of the hotel and is not included here.)

The main range is three storeys tall with seven windows, predominantly 2-light wood casements with transoms and horizontal glazing bars. At second-floor level are seven casements of this type, above three similar casements and two wider later casements, with a final small square light adjacent to the return link. The ground floor features a 2-light casement, then a 19th-century 6-panel door under a painted-in radial fanlight, three pairs of French doors with horizontal glazing bars, another 2-light casement, and then the returned link. The left end is hipped. The building has one ridge stack and one gable stack, both of late brickwork. The rear elevation displays two 3-light half-dormers flanking a wide stone stack at the eaves of the original rear wall, and a similar brick stack near the east end. At this end is also a narrow hipped one-bay wing with a 16-pane sash below 2-light casements.

The two-storey range adjoining Sinai Hill has a splayed corner featuring a 2-light small-pane casement above a pair of doors with a shallow transom light. The main front has an early 2-light small-pane casement and a blind opening above 20th-century windows set in pilasters with caps carrying a fascia with small cornice mould, the moulding returned to the splay. The gable end is plain except for a small stack, and incorporates a Victorian postbox built into the wall.

The range at right angles, known as The Pantry, was originally a symmetrical two-storey three-window house. It now has two good 9-pane sashes and a later 2-light casement at first-floor level, above 2-lights flanking a canted glazed porch with hipped slate roof. Windows to the right of centre have been repositioned inward to allow construction of a full-height corridor with a 20th-century door. The rear is plain. A glazed corridor at the upper level links this range to the main building.

Interior inspection was conducted of the main range only. The interior has undergone considerable modification, though at the Sinai Hill end is a section with low ceilings. The ground floor otherwise shows little historical evidence except for one wide lateral beam near the centre of the range. The first floor has a landing providing access to a rear exit, with two flat segmental-arched openings on panelled pilasters. A tight winder stair with simple stick balustrade leads to an upper landing with turned newel.

Despite alterations dating from the 19th century, this building is one of the earlier structures in Lynton in its original form.