Details
LANCASTER
SD4761SE PENNY STREET
1685-1/8/226 (West side)
Farmers' Arms Hotel
GV II
Pair of hotels (one formerly The White Cross), now a single
hotel. c1900, altered C20. Possibly by Austin and Paley, in a
Northern Renaissance style. Sandstone ashlar on the ground and
first floors with squared coursed stone above, and slate roofs
with coped gables. Reverse L-shaped plan on corner of
Aldcliffe Road, with 2 entrances to Penny Street and one to
Aldcliffe Road. Chimney stacks in various positions.
3 storeys, and 13 bays of irregular width which can be divided
into 2 symmetrical blocks. The block at the corner of the 2
roads is almost symmetrical around the wide diagonal bay,
which has chamfered quoins, a cornice-like band between the
ground floor and the first storey, plus a sill band on the
first floor, all under a tall Flemish gable; this rises to a
small scrolled pediment, which is topped by a ball finial and
carried by short pilasters flanking a tiny rusticated arch
borne on a tapering pilaster. The ground floor of this bay has
a 7-light mullioned and transomed bow window, and there is on
the first floor a cross-window, topped by a broken segmental
pediment and flanked by 2 single lights with a transom, all
above an elaborate apron. The second-floor window, like those
under the other gables, has been altered by the insertion of a
concrete lintel and wooden mullions.
This central bay has on either side a narrow bay with, on the
ground floor, a square-headed and keystoned doorway, set under
a segmental pediment and flanked by single windows with a
transom. Above the right-hand doorway is a canopy. There is a
cross-window on the first floor and, on the second floor, a
similar window which rises into a segmental dormer. Beyond
this narrow bay, on either side, is a wide bay which rises
into a gable which, to the right, is a simpler version of the
central one and, to the left, a much simpler one without the
arch and pilaster. The left bay has 3 windows on the ground
floor and 2 windows above, mostly cross mullions. The right
bay has 3 windows on the ground floor, and a single 3-light
cross mullion window above.
The right-hand block facing King Street is symmetrical about a
wide central bay which rises to a gable like the one on the
right of the left-hand block. On the ground floor of its
central bay is a very wide entrance (now subdivided into
three) under a richly moulded flat arch carried on console
brackets. On the first floor is a cross-window flanked by
single lights with a transom, with an elaborate apron beneath
and a small scrolled pediment above. On either side of this
central bay on the first and second floors there are
rusticated pilasters, which are repeated between all the
windows on these 2 storeys. This central bay is flanked by
3-bay wings, which have on the ground floor a round-headed
window, flanked by short windows under a segmental pediment.
These windows have probably original stained-glass with floral
motifs: the 2 windows to the left of the door are labelled
'Commercial Room' and 'Lounge Bar'. On the first floor there
are a cross-window with a single transomed window on either
side, and on the second floor a similar arrangement of windows
without transoms.
Listing NGR: SD4773561295
