The Rutland Arms Hotel

The Rutland Arms Hotel, a coaching inn of 1804 built for the Duke of Rutland, extended in 1895.

MATERIALS: the building is of coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs.

PLAN: the principal hotel building faces east onto Rutland Square, with its later assembly room set back and projecting to the north-west.

EXTERIOR: the principal block is of three storeys and five bays, with a central main entrance of glazed door and fanlight under a projecting porch supported on Doric columns, supporting the Duke of Rutland's coat of arms above. A further bay, slightly recessed, is to the north. There is a first floor plat band across the elevation, quoins at each end and a moulded eaves cornice above. Windows are 8/12 sashes to ground and first floor; 8/8 to second floor and have projecting sills and grooved lintels. The roof above has a series of tall ashlar chimney stacks.

The northern elevation has a secondary entrance with projecting canopy supported on deep brackets. Beyond, the single storey 1895 extension is in the same style with a hipped roof.

INTERIOR: the main entrance to the hotel opens onto the principal stair which rises the full height of the building. It is open string with a wreathed and ramped handrail and three stick balusters to each tread. Much of the ground floor layout has been altered, but there are some surviving internal doors and ceiling cornices. The front left room has a cast-iron grate with side hobs, consoles and relief scrollwork in a wooden surround, and the rear room has a similar grate in a marble surround with collonettes.

The assembly room has a plain ceiling cornice and doors in moulded timber surrounds surmounted by broken pediments.