Summary
A railway hotel with detached outbuildings of 1850s date.
Reasons for Designation
Grail Court Hotel and its associated outbuildings, erected in the 1850s, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as an assured and tidy design in the distinctive C19 railway hotel tradition;
* it is well built using good quality materials;
* the building retains a legible railway hotel arrangement to the interior with principal areas including a bar, dining rooms and a reception with C19 main staircase;
* as an evolved building that has historically expanded to include the adjacent C19 houses with shops including early C20 projecting shopfronts;
* as a striking corner building in a prominent location, which makes the most of its position on the main route into the town and its close proximity to the railway station;
* the former coach house is a characteristic companion building to the hotel fronting Guild Street and retains a significant proportion of its historic fabric.
Historic interest:
* as part of the mid-C19 development of Burton, reflecting the greater commercial opportunities in the area after the advent of the railway and the need to accommodate visitors and commercial travellers to the town.
Group value:
* with a number of listed buildings close by including the adjacent County Court (Grade II) as part of the C19 expansion along Station Street.
History
Following the coming of the railways to Burton-on-Trent in 1839, Cat Street, the main road into town from the west, was renamed Station Street and some of the other roads around it were adjusted. Guildables Lane was reorientated and widened at its southern end to align with Union Street, and was renamed Guild Street. The newly formed crossroads was in place by 1852 and the Midland Hotel (later renamed Grail Court Hotel) was built on the corner with a coach house and other outbuildings built to the rear. The hotel buildings are shown on a map of 1870 along with a row of attached houses to the east with projecting ground floor shopfronts fronting Station Street. A configuration of L-shaped coach house and stabling is first shown on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1884, at which time there were further buildings across the yard that have since been removed.
By the time of the Ordnance Survey Map of 1923, the adjacent house had been incorporated within the hotel and the other buildings in the row were brought in by 1970, and a new extension had been built to the rear. In the late C20 the hotel was renamed Grail Court Hotel and some dining and bar areas to the ground floor were refurbished on an Arthurian theme. The shops and the rear ground floor areas of the former houses were opened out and refitted as a nightclub. The other hotel interiors have been updated in the mid-late C20. By the C21 the first floor of the coach house in the courtyard had been converted to office use.
Details
Hotel with outbuildings of 1850s date incorporating adjacent former houses and shops and with later alterations.
MATERIALS: constructed of brick with stucco render to the front elevations of the hotel. Most windows are timber sashes, some of which are later replacements. The timber roof structures are covered in slate.
PLAN: of three storeys to the 1850s hotel and two storeys plus attic to the former houses, and double depth on plan with a corner entrance. The ground floor rooms include bar serveries, dining rooms and a kitchen to the rear, and extend into the former shops where they have been opened out to the rear. There are two back stairs to the rear and the upper floors have corridors with hotel rooms.
EXTERIOR: the principal elevations to Station Street and Guild Street meet at a main entrance to the corner facing the road junction. They are rendered with banding and a lined eaves. The angled doorway has a door case with pediment on consoles, a blocked rectangular fanlight, and a four-panelled divided door. There is a blind opening to each floor above the door. To the right, facing Station Street, are two sash windows to ground and first floors (those to the right are tripartite and C20) with three-over-three sashes to the second floor. To the right is a four-windowed wing (former houses) with five hipped dormers to the roof and projecting former shopfronts under a flat roof to the ground floor. To the shopfronts, which have been extended by half a bay west across the hotel, there are three window openings with heavy mullions and transoms and a modern divided door.
The return side to Guild Street has three sashes to each floor and attached to the left, by an entrance to the rear courtyard, is a two-storey bay with a sash to each floor under flat arches and a hipped roof. The mid-late C20 metal railings that line the frontage either side of the main hotel entrance are not of special interest. The rear is mainly of plain brick over a range of heights. There are brick extensions to the left and a timber verandah over a back door to the right, which are not of special interest. There are brick stacks to the roofs.
INTERIOR: the panelled hotel reception hall has a timber desk and open well staircase with wreathed handrail, stick balusters and decorative string. Doors from the hall lead to two principal dining areas. One is fitted out with pine panelling on an Arthurian theme including a ‘round table’ feature fitted as a ceiling rose. There is a mid-C20 bar servery with mirrored bar back and shelving to the rear of the restaurant. The bar has a servery shared with the adjacent dining area, which is decorated in the Georgian style with ‘plastered’ wall alcoves and suspended ceilings. C19 decorative treatments may remain concealed behind later insertions. To the ground floor behind the Station Street shopfronts are late C20 serveries, kitchens and other facilities and open areas, which are not of special interest. To the first and second floors are hotel rooms and corridors and the few fireplaces are probably early C20 or later. There is some late C19 joinery such as cupboards, door architraves, four-panelled doors and skirting boards. The two sets of back staircases are plain with stick balusters. The roof structure is partly exposed to some attic rooms in the former houses and, where inspected, appears unaltered.
In the north-west corner of the yard are adjoining brick buildings of mid-C19 date. A two-storey coach house is constructed on a north/south orientation along the edge of Guild Street. Attached to its north-east end and forming an L-plan is a single-storey outbuilding with wide timber doors across the main elevation and a hipped roof. Some C19 roof structure remains but the roof is mainly a late C20 replacement and there is modern subdivision within the ground floor area.
The two-storey coach house has an eight-window range facing the yard with alternating casement and door openings to the ground floor under segmental brick arches and alternating casements and sashes to the first floor under segmental or flat heads. The sash openings may be modified from loading doors and there is a modern door at the right end above an external metal staircase. A number of the openings on the elevation are sealed in brick and there are other areas of disturbed brick. The alterations and varied building line (the northern half is set forward) indicate historic reordering and adaptation. The road front has a five-window elevation with an inserted garage opening to the left and three horned sashes with flat arches above. To the right there is an inserted door under a flat head and two brick sealed window openings to each floor under segmental heads. The roof is hipped at the south end. The ground floor rooms appear to be former stabling adapted to storage with some brick floors, and concrete support to some walls and ceilings. To the first floor is an exposed king-post roof structure and by the central closed truss is a timber-framed stairwell with a C20 timber staircase. The brick walls enclosing the rear courtyard are not of special interest.
