The Royal Hotel

The Royal Hotel is a mid-19th century building, possibly a recasing of an earlier house, located on St Nicholas Street. It stands four storeys tall and is finished in stucco, featuring a cornice and parapet. The hotel is situated on a curved corner site and has full-height canted stucco bays with Corinthian colonettes that divide the windows, along with string courses that run across the façade. The entrance is marked by composite columns.

Inside, the hotel boasts a remarkable mid-19th century staircase hall that rises the full height of the building. The staircase well is rectangular, with the ground floor functioning as a basement with solid walls, plain pilasters, and a cornice. The first two floors are adorned with lofty Corinthian columns positioned at the corners of the stairwell, where one column acts as a pier and another as a pilaster attached to a pier. These columns support an elaborate entablature, above which is a single attic storey with panelled piers, a cornice, and a top light.

The cast iron staircase begins as a single flight facing the front door and then branches out in freestanding curves to the first floor. There is an iron balustrade at the first-floor gallery level, and a suspended gallery landing at the second floor features a cast iron balustrade behind the columns. The top floor also has a cast iron balustrade between the piers. At the first floor, a staircase of similar design rises from the rear of the gallery to the second floor. Panelled doors with mounted surrounds are present at all gallery levels, maintaining the character of the interior.

The Terrace Lounge on the first floor contains two mid-19th century enriched plaster ceilings in a room divided by a flat arch supported by two Corinthian columns, along with a marble chimney piece. The remainder of the interior has been altered. Notably, some of the first films brought to the UK and made by Louis Lumiere were shown here in 1897, as well as at the former Old Town Hall.