Shelley'S Hotel And Railings To South

Shelley's Hotel and Railings to South

A house, later converted to The Vine Inn and now operating as a hotel, located on the north side of Lewes High Street. The building dates from the 16th century, with significant extensions and refronting undertaken in the mid-18th century, followed by alterations in the late 18th century.

The south front (facing High Street) is rendered with stone dressings and features a modillioned cornice above a stone slate roof with large brick ridge stacks. The north front is clad in red and blue mathematical tiles. The building presents a double-depth plan with a projecting hipped entrance porch of two storeys, lower than the main ridge. The main elevation is two storeys with slightly irregular fenestration: four windows to the right of the central porch and three to the left, with a blank bay between the second and third windows from the left. Most windows are glazing bar sashes in deep raised frames with keyblocks. The third window from the left on the ground floor is tripartite with an arched central light, as is the window below it. The first floor of the porch frontage is blank and carries a projecting hotel sign. The entrance is set beneath a stone Tudor arch contained within a Doric columned surround with an entablature-hood. The outer doorway features a Tudor-arched surround dated 1577 in its left-hand spandrel. An early 17th-century moulded doorway exists inside the porch. Spearhead railings flank either side of the porch entrance.

The north (garden) front features two hexagonal bays of two storeys, with a hipped roof and bracketed cornice.

Interior features of significance include: a hall with Tuscan columns to the right and rear, containing an early 18th-century three-flight open square well stair with turned balusters, columnar newels, an open ramped rail, and a dome and round lantern over. The bar retains 17th-century panelling and has a late 18th-century wide ogee screen arch on triple colonnettes to the rear. The dining room features an early 18th-century fireplace with a Shelley crest above. The vestibule contains doorcases with moulded architraves, cornices and fluted friezes, together with fasces panelling and a moulded cornice. The conference room displays circa 1780 decoration including a modillioned cornice, Vitruvian scroll dado, and a fire-surround with tapering Ionic pilasters and a swagged frieze; the doorcase features moulded architraves, drop decoration and a swagged frieze to the cornices. Bedroom 10 contains an early 18th-century fire-surround with acanthus decoration and volute-brackets supporting a corniced mantel-shelf. Various other early 18th-century fireplaces are found on the first floor. Bedroom 11 retains 16th- or early 17th-century wall-paintings, now covered by plasterboard, depicting putti among heraldic decoration. Bedroom 9 contains 17th-century panelling. Watercolour drawings of the hotel's interiors from 1865 are displayed in the hotel bar.

A wing to the rear is two storeys with five bays, constructed in matching materials and style, dating to the early to mid-20th century.

The gardens of Shelley's Hotel are reputed to have been laid out by the architect Alfred Waterhouse during the mid to late 19th century.