Royal Hop Pole Hotel

Details

TEWKESBURY

SO8932 CHURCH STREET 859-1/6/147 (North side) 04/03/52 No.94 Royal Hop Pole Hotel

GV II*

Hotel. Late C15, refronted and extended late C18. Formerly 2 separate buildings: to right a C15 house and to left, a late C18 coaching inn. Exteriors are described separately; the interior, with many interconnections, is taken as a whole. House: box framing with brick panels, tile roof, brick stacks. A 3-storey 2-bay double-jettied house to the street, covering a throughway to the right, and with a hall range at the back, with later extensions. 2-bay range with 2-light gabled dormers with barge-boards, above shallow 5-light casements at second floor and deep 4-light casements with transom at first floor; these all set to outer edges of framing. The ground floor is underbuilt and brought forward, with 2x5 lights with transom, and 4-centred heads to the lights. To right is a broad opening with a pair of plank doors under a C15 flat-arched lintel with carved spandrels. In the throughway, approx 1.5m back from the doors, is a moulded beam carried on heavy free-standing post with spandrel-carved brackets; this was the former bressumer carrying first-floor jetty. A further pair of braced posts with beams, and chamfered joists to run-out stops. Wall to left is in heavy braced framing, and contains C17 six-panel, part-glazed door in C15 four-centred head. Back of range box-framed, and beyond is former hall block with steep tiled roof and large square ridge stack in early brickwork. Further late wings extend deep into the burgage plot. Inn: brick unit 3 storeys and basement, 1+3 bays. The left bay, added soon after the main build has sash at second floor, presumably 8-pane originally, now without the central vertical glazing bar. At first and ground floors a large tripartite plate-glass sash. Bay is contained in full-height V-joint pilasters, with floating modillion cornice under blocking course and coped parapet. The main block is similarly detailed, but without the pilasters, with 8-pane sashes at second floor, and tripartite glazing-bar sashes below, except that to left of door, with plate glass. All windows under V-joint splayed lintels, and on stone cills with small brackets. Small plinth, and grille with pavement access to cellar, left of door. Central set-back pair of panelled doors with panelled side-lights and transom-light, panelled reveals and pilasters all on 3 stone steps. Large square flat canopy as porte-cochere over the pavement has a moulded edge, and is carried on 2 very slender iron 'Ionic' columns. On canopy a wrought-iron overthrow carries the Arms of George III. To right of door a panel recording a visit by Mr. Pickwick, "At the Hop Pole, Tewkesbury, they stopped to dine ...". A large brick ridge stack to left, at party wall between bays 1 and 2. At the back is a full-height wide-gabled wing to the right, with wavy barge-boards, and a tripartite sash under stopped drips at first and second floor. Ground floor has flat-roofed extensions. To the left of a narrow courtyard is a lower wing with low-pitched slate roof. INTERIOR: the principal interest is in the framed unit, which has a large open room at the front at ground and first floors. At ground floor is an early timber fire surround with brattished overmantel above a segmental arch with ogee braces, on small colonnettes. The compartmental ceiling has moulded beams, and near the street front are 2 moulded bressumers, the inner one with mortices for the former outer wall. The upper room has beams with a slight chamfer, and with chamfered soffit-ribs. A tight C17 open-well stair. Considerable framing throughout this block, including a roof with 2 ranges of wind-bracing in the back slope; central arch - braced truss, formerly with boss; this first-floor room had traceried heads to 3-light C15 windows, replaced in C17. The hall range has been subdivided, and was not generally accessible, but VCH reports richly moulded C16 joists and inserted C16 brick stack and fireplace. In the C18 building the former cobbled throughway is now enclosed, with a glazed skylight, covered by a tarpaulin internally, above the reception area. To the left is the stair hall with a fine square open-well stair with stick balusters to a continuous swept mahogany handrail. In the rear parts some C20 non-conforming timber-framing. Between first and second floors a secondary painted stair with solid string, Doric newels, heavy handrail, and flat fluted balusters. The cellars have heavy beams to the ceilings, but under the central lobby is a segmental brick vault. Floors are brick; the staircase has been replaced in concrete. The cellar under the earlier section was not accessible for inspection. The Royal Hop Pole Hotel is a rambling complex of buildings, but its earliest section is one of the more important survivals in the town. (Victoria County History: Gloucestershire: London: 1968-: 131).

Listing NGR: SO8920532630

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

376726

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Gloucester, (1968), 131

End of official list entry

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