Abbey House Hotel

Abbey House Hotel is a mansion built between 1910 and 1914 by the architect Edwin Lutyens. It was commissioned for Vickers Ltd. The building is constructed of irregularly coursed red ashlar sandstone with a graduated slate roof. It has a complex, irregular H-plan shape, extended by two-storey cross-wings. The architectural style is Elizabethan, with a symmetrical design.

The building features chamfered mullioned windows with leaded lights in metal casements. The parapets have copings made from the topmost wallstones, and the rainwater goods are cast iron with square downpipes and decorative hoppers. The central entrance is within a semi-octagonal projection, featuring a double-chamfered plinth and a double door set within a round arch. There are oversailing steps leading to a panel displaying the date “A.D. 1914” and a cartouche bearing the Vickers arms. The windows on the second floor are two-light windows. The main range on each side has two two-light windows and a cross-window to the ground floor, with three first-floor windows, each having a king mullion and four round-arched lights. Paired cross-windows are present on the second floor. The front wings have three-storey canted bay windows, divided into sections of 1:4:1 lights with transoms, and are lit from the side by round-headed mullioned windows.

The main range extends beyond these wings, featuring round-arched doors flanked by two-light windows, the upper floor windows mirroring those previously described. The cross-wings at each end of the main range have gables set behind their parapets. The main-range parapet has corner chimneys, each with a moulded plinth and caps to five linked octagonal flues. Similar three-flue stacks adorn the outer returns of the front wings, and four-flue ridge stacks are present on each side of the center.

The rear elevation has a central recess with a canted bay window illuminating the Great Hall. Wings on each side have canted bay windows to their ends and outer returns, while the inner returns feature projecting stacks, each with four flues above the parapet. The two-storey cross-wings also terminate in canted bay windows.

The interior, which was not fully inspected, includes an ashlar-lined vestibule with pilasters and half-columns. The Great Hall contains oak panelling, a staircase, a bolection-moulded fireplace with a tiled fireback, and a coffered ceiling. A restaurant in the rear right wing includes a marble fireplace with a wreath above it, and a saucer-dome ceiling.