The Croft Hotel

Details

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NZ 2809-2909
10/29

CROFT-ON-TEES
NORTHALLERTON ROAD
Croft Hotel

(Formerly listed as Croft Spa Hotel, A 167)

GV
II
Hotel. 1835. By Ignatius Bonomi for Sir William Chaytor. Roughcast, Welsh
slate roof. Two storeys. Irregular plan. Main range of 2:3:2:1 bays, with
four bay ballroom range added probably c1860 to left, and six bay coach house to
right.

Main range: 'central' three bays project slightly, with coped gable treated as pediment; the side bays successively recessed. Central six-panel door below fanlight, with timber porch of square Tuscan columns with exaggerated entasis, the flat roof forming balcony to first floor French window above, with pedimented doorcase which breaks into the band forming effect of pediment, and has blind oculus in tympanum. Sixteen-pane sash windows with ashlar sills. First floor band. Stacks between second and third, fifth and sixth, seventh and eighth bays. To left: ballroom range is taller and with deep ground floor; to right, four-panel door in pedimented Tuscan doorcase; fifteen-pane sash windows on ground floor, nine-pane unequally hung sashes on first floor. Ashlar coping. Stack at right end.

To right: coach house is lower; segmental-arched openings on ground floor, with board doors except in sixth where blocked, and with blocked doorway between fifth and sixth bays; side-sliding sash windows on first floor; C20 clay pantile roof, hipped to right.

Interior: the dining room, which projects to the rear, has a decorative plaster ceiling.

The hotel is a relic of the heyday of Croft Spa preserved in its original condition. The sulpherous mineral waters of Croft were first noticed early in the C17, and the first bath was erected in 1688. By 1713 the waters were being sold in London in sealed bottles at high prices. The first hotel was built in 1808. A new suite of baths was built c1815 at the Old Spa (qv) by Sir William Chaytor, followed c1827 by the New Spa (qv), which had hot and cold baths. The coming of the railway brought more visitors, and the station was called Croft Spa Station. To accommodate visitors to the "Wells", a large number of lodging houses were built.

T Bulmer, History, Topography and Directory of North Yorkshire, (1890), p 414; H Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, (1978), p 123; T A Littleton, "Cure-All?", an article on Croft Spa published in Richmond and District Civic Society Annual Report (1982), pp 25-27; VCH i, p 163; W White, History, Gazetteer and Directory of the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire (1840), p 414.

Listing NGR: NZ2885709770

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

322668

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of York: North Riding, (1914), 163
Colvin, H M, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840, (1978), 123
Bulmer, T, History Topography and Directory of North Yorkshire, (1890), 414
Richmond and District Civic Society Annual Report in Annual Report, (1982), 25-27
Whites Directory in History Gazetteer and Directory of the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire, (1840), 414

End of official list entry

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