Royal Hotel

The Royal Hotel is a mid-18th century inn, altered in the 19th century, and incorporating a 17th century house at the rear. It is located on Main Street, with an extension to the right before 1855. The front facade is of ashlar construction with a slate roof and two chimneys. The ground floor has chamfered rustication, a first-floor sill band, a dentil and modillion cornice, and a blocking course. The symmetrical five-bay facade features sashed windows with sills and plain reveals; the ground-floor windows have rustication splayed over them. The central first-floor window is elongated downwards with a small semicircular wrought-iron balcony. A mid-19th century painted tablet with "Royal Hotel" is situated above this window, framed by triglyphs and mutules. A porch features two Ionic columns, corresponding pilasters on the wall, a pulvinated frieze, a modillion cornice, and a pediment.

The three-storey extension to the right, facing Main Street, is one bay wide, but five bays wide along New Road, with a rounded corner and eaves cornice. The windows are sashed with all glazing bars and have plain stone surrounds. A doorway to New Road is topped with an open pediment on consoles.

Behind the main building, the older part retains a moulded lintel to a second-floor window. A 17th century doorway (now a window) has moulded jambs and a lintel enriched with curvilinear moulding and rosettes. Other windows are box sashed with all glazing bars.

The interior includes a front room on the right-hand side with a semicircular extension through a former external wall and a mid-19th century fireplace with pilaster strips. A large rectangular, two-flight cantilevered staircase also dates to the mid-19th century. The lobby behind the staircase features two exposed beams and a made-up Jacobean chimneypiece of wood with dissimilar Ionic pilasters. A late 17th or early 18th century dogleg staircase is located in the west wing on the first floor, with a closed string, turned balusters, a heavy moulded handrail, three turned newels with ball finials, and one ball pendant.

Part of the building was formerly a private residence called Jackson Hall, which subsequently became the Rose and Crown Inn. New Road was constructed across the northern part of the property after a fire in 1820. The visit of Queen Adelaide in 1840 prompted the change of name and likely the additions to the building.