Royal Castle Hotel

Details

DARTMOUTH

SX874510 THE QUAY 673-1/8/259 (West side) 14/09/49 No.11 Royal Castle Hotel

GV II*

Pair of merchant's houses, dated 1639, united and converted to an inn in the C18. Built for William Barnes and Joseph Cubbitt. By 1736 Barnes' house (the right one) was known as the New Inn owned by John Summers, and by 1782 John Browne had acquired Cubbitt's house and the 2 were already known as The Castle. The late C18 improvements are probably associated with him. Extensive alterations in 1840. Stucco front. Mixed construction; thick party walls of local stone rubble, front and back walls of plastered timber-framing; stone rubble stacks with C19 brick chimneyshafts and old pots; slate roof. PLAN: Built as a pair of houses, both end onto The Quay. Originally both had front blocks 2 rooms deep with stacks in their right party walls. Both houses had rear blocks behind small courtyards, and the right one at least was connected to the front block by a gallery. C17 fabric survives extensively on the lower 2 floors and this influenced the major rebuild of 1840 when front and rear blocks were raised and the courtyard glazed over to house a new grand staircase and galleries. Wide passage from nearly-central front doorway through front block to the courtyard. Some of original internal partitions removed, particularly on the ground floor. EXTERIOR: 4 storeys with attics; symmetrical 5-window front. Upper floors from 1840, but C17 structure indicated by jettied first and second floors. Ends of the stone party walls corbel out to carry the jetties. They are plastered but, in the centre wall, the original date plaque is exposed, inscribed 1639 with the initials of William and Mary Barnes and Joseph and Johane Cubbitt, just below the corbelling for the second-floor jetty. Because of the central stone wall the front doorway is right of centre; probably early C19 flanking fluted Doric columns support the jetty and C18 eared stucco surround to doorway under a leafy frieze, 5-panel door. Ground floor has C18 sashes, 2 to left of the doorway and a triple sash to right, all originally 12-pane sashes but glazing bars have been removed. Front is symmetrical above. First floor has 2 late C18 large curving bay windows, each containing three 12-pane sashes. Second and third floors have a 5-window front of 1840, central blind windows and 12-pane sashes, all with stucco Tudor-style hoodmoulds. Stucco castellated parapet complete with decorative machicolation and end turrets for flagpoles. Parallel roof hipped both ends and contains 2 front flat-roofed dormers containing C20 casements. Plain rear jettied at first-floor level suggesting C17 origins. INTERIOR: Essentially the result of the 1840 rebuild but carpentry of the C17 right house exposed at ground-floor level; axial joists of large scantling from front and rear blocks and 2 alcoves, apparently for newel stairs. An ovolo-moulded axial beam provides evidence for C17 gallery across the original coutyard. Some C17 pine overlapping-plank screen reused in the bar, the left front room. Room above has good original ornamental plaster ceiling of single rib design with moulded angle sprays. To rear of first-floor right room is a late C17 timber arch with keystone and capitals, possibly from a cupboard or even a blocked doorway through to No.12 The Quay (qv). Rest of the building largely C19 and includes some fine features. The covered courtyard is particularly impressive with galleries and stick-baluster stair. Windows each side include horned sashes. Old service bells with room numbers. HISTORY: The Royal Castle Hotel is the largest building on the west side of The Quay overlooking the Boat Float. Originally it was 2 of a group of merchants' houses built on reclaimed land in a Town Corporation-backed scheme to reclaim land for housing and expand the port facilities with the New Quay. This began in 1585, and by the second phase, in the 1630s, this was the most fashionable part of the town, and the surviving C17 houses here are amongst the best merchants' houses of their period in Devon. (Freeman, Ray: Dartmouth and its Neighbours: Phillimore: 1990-: P.76-83/P.139/P.153).

Listing NGR: SX8778051369

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

387368

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Freeman, R, Dartmouth and its Neighbours, (1990), 76-83 139
Freeman, R, Dartmouth and its Neighbours, (1990), 153

End of official list entry

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