The Royal George Hotel

The Royal George Hotel is a building with a complex history, likely dating back to at least the late 16th century, with significant alterations in the 18th and 20th centuries. The buildings are constructed from random limestone rubble, with the front range roughly coursed, and both ranges have been rendered at some point. They are roofed with Westmorland greenslates.

The front range is two storeys and has an attic, with a three-window front. It features cross-framed lattice casement windows with louvred shutters under concrete lintels. This range has a steeply pitched roof with gable stacks, plus a ridge stack positioned in the cross-passage. While the front presents an apparently balanced 18th-century appearance, historical photographs from around 1920 reveal earlier alterations. Previously, the windows were unevenly arranged, and the main entrance was located in the cross-passage. The current appearance, established post-1930, includes heightened eaves, a raised roofline, and uniformly arranged windows.

A 1930s wing, likely originally a tearoom, was added to the right-hand return with a continuous glazed frontage on the ground floor. The windows in this wing are small-paned, and the roof is a large swept design with three gabled dormers, each containing 6x6 casement windows. This wing connects to a rear wing added to the main block, with the hotel entrance now situated in the angle between them. The rear wing is the full height of the front ridge, indicating a unified building program. A verandah and another gabled dormer are at the end of the tearoom.

The rear elevation has a gabled dormer in the tearoom roof and three windows in the rear wing’s gable, although much of this elevation is obscured by later construction. A substantial old rear wing is a three-storey house, potentially dating from 1598. It features a central door with dressed jambs and lintel, flanked by 1930s casements with concrete lintels. Above are three windows with stone lintels, followed by two smaller casements and a blind recessed panel. A rear stack and a tall, attached 1930s chimney are also present. The gable end has been largely reconstructed with three modern casements.

The interior is significantly altered, primarily with a 1930s and late 20th-century style. The ground floor, the only part surveyed, is now largely a bar area, formerly the tearoom.