The Ancient Gate House Hotel

The Ancient Gate House Hotel

Hotel dating from 1451 with later amendments. The building is constructed of local random stone rubble with Doulting stone dressings, rendered at first-floor level, and has a Welsh slate roof with an abutment to the north and continuation to the south, with stone chimney stacks.

The Ancient Gate House Hotel incorporates two separate properties, Nos 20 and 22 Sadler Street. No. 20 contains a single room on each floor and has been much restructured in the early and later 18th century, though it retains 15th-century fabric. No. 22 comprises two main rooms at each level in a former single-depth range, possibly with a former cross-passage, and features a spiral stair at the rear right end. This part is linked with the medieval Brown's Gate, including one of its lettable rooms.

The exterior presents two storeys with an attic across four bays. A plinth runs along the ground floor. Bays 1 and 2 have four-light ovolo-mould mullioned and transomd windows under timber lintels. Bay 4 has a sixteen-pane sash window with exposed sash boxes and timber lintel. Between bays 1 and 2 is a half-glazed door, and to bay 3 is a six-panel door set back and up two steps, with a moulded timber hood on console brackets. The first floor has sixteen-pane sash windows to all bays. The attic features dormers with two-light segmental-arched head casement windows to bays 1 and 4, and between bays 2 and 3.

The north side elevation is integral with Brown's Gatehouse and features a break forward eastwards, with a timber doorway in stone surround. To the left is a blocked two-light window with a blocked single-light above it.

The rear elevation faces Cathedral Green and takes the form of an outshut with a battlemented rear wall. The ground floor has a part-glazed pair of doors and a two-light casement window. Above, cutting into the parapet string, is a two-light horizontal-sliding sash, with an oculus at mezzanine level to the right. Two late dormer windows pierce the roof, with a former chimney between them. To the left is a section of 18th-century and earlier work with three storeys and two bays, featuring sash windows with thick glazing bars—twelve-pane to ground and first floors and six-pane to the second floor. A 20th-century part-glazed door with timber hood opens from the lower left bay.

The interior of the ground floor shows considerable modification. The right-hand room has been adapted as a reception area. A rear room retains a small stone square fireplace and a moulded cornice. To the left of the entry, 20th-century panelling has replaced most wall detailing, though two ceilings survive, each in four compartments with 16th-century moulded beams. The further room contains a large fireplace to the end wall, with a heavy and richly carved 15th-century overmantel featuring brattishing and florets, above which is a small area of 17th-century panelling. To the right is part of the buttress stonework to Brown's Gate.

The rear wall features a stone chamfer-arch doorway to the left and a small 15th-century stone fireplace with four-centred arch and spandrels, though cut through centrally to a raised arch. To its right is the upper part of a further arched doorway, now forming a lunette, possibly the former rear door to the passage. Windows have panelled shutters. The entry to the passageway is through an arched chamfered doorway. In the attic floor is one 17th-century door with moulded planks, cut at the head to fit an irregular opening.

The roof structure over No. 20 retains a flat chamfered windbrace over the front slope and a very large chamfered and stopped purlin. A central principal breaks through the purlin at the crown of the arch brace, where a dormer has been formed. The rear slope in the same room shows one chamfered and stopped rafter exposed. Over No. 22, no wind-bracing remains, though one mortice is visible in a rear principal. The main structure comprises heavy cambered collar trusses and two large purlins, with one room showing a cruck-like foot to one of the principals.