Hotel Du Vin and Attached Front Area Wall and Railings
HOTEL DU VIN AND ATTACHED FRONT AREA WALL AND RAILINGS, 11, THAMES STREET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1225272
- Date first listed:
- 14-Jun-1954
- List Entry Name:
- Hotel Du Vin and Attached Front Area Wall and Railings
- Statutory Address:
- HOTEL DU VIN AND ATTACHED FRONT AREA WALL AND RAILINGS, 11, THAMES STREET
Location
Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.
Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions .
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.
What is the National Heritage List for England?
The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.
The list includes:
 |
Buildings |
 |
Scheduled monuments |
 |
Parks and gardens |
 |
Battlefields |
 |
Shipwrecks |
Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2006-03-01
- Reference:
- IOE01/15234/16
- Rights:
- © Mr Graham Hutton. Source: Historic England Archive
Local Heritage Hub
Unlock and explore hidden histories, aerial photography, and listed buildings and places for every county, district, city and major town across England.
Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1225272
- Date first listed:
- 14-Jun-1954
- Date of most recent amendment:
- 18-May-2010
- List Entry Name:
- Hotel Du Vin and Attached Front Area Wall and Railings
- Statutory Address 1:
- HOTEL DU VIN AND ATTACHED FRONT AREA WALL AND RAILINGS, 11, THAMES STREET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- HOTEL DU VIN AND ATTACHED FRONT AREA WALL AND RAILINGS, 11, THAMES STREET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Poole
- National Grid Reference:
- SZ 00797 90366
Details
POOLE
958-1/17/176 THAMES STREET 14-JUN-1954 (West side) 11 HOTEL DU VIN AND ATTACHED FRONT AREA W ALL AND RAILINGS (Formerly listed as: THAMES STREET 11 MANSION HOUSE AND ATTACHED FRONT AREA WALLS AND RAILINGS) (Formerly listed as: THAMES STREET 11 MANSION HOUSE) (Formerly listed as: THAMES STREET IRON RAILINGS AT NUMBER 11)
GV II* House, now a hotel. Built in the second half of the C18 for Isaac and Benjamin Lester, MP; by John Stretland, a local builder.
MATERIALS: Red brick in Flemish bond with stone dressings, brick gable stacks and a slate valley roof.
PLAN: It is built in a mid-Georgian style and has a double-depth plan with three storeys, attics and a semi-basement.
EXTERIOR: The five-bay front faces onto Thames Street and is a symmetrical composition with an impost band to the ground floor, cornice and a parapet. The slightly projecting central bay which rises to a small pediment has an entrance doorway and stair windows which are lower than those to the flanking floors. Curved steps lead up to a semi-circular Doric portico with triglyphs, and a six-panel moulded door with margin lights. Above the entrance is a central first-floor Venetian stair window with a small lunette above. The basement and ground-floor windows are set within semi-detached-arched recesses with rubbed brick arches. The flat-headed basement and first-floor windows have six/six-pane sashes including radial heads to the ground-floor windows. The right-hand return has lateral stacks with a central first-floor window above an oculus.
INTERIOR: (Not inspected 2010) Contains a large flagged entrance stair hall with wainscotting, dado and side niches, and enriched bracketed cornice. It has a fine Imperial stair with cast iron balusters, each third one enriched. The staircase is supported on paired wooden columns with Tower of the Winds capitals, going up a single flight and returning in two to the front landing. The rear dining room has a recessed alcove with flanking attached columns and a marble fireplace with a relief of two dried cod, symbols of the family's wealth. There are panelled doors and cornices; and basement services.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: The attached front walls and spear-headed iron railings with modern interval panels with decorative wrought ironwork, and a side wall.
HISTORY: From the late C17 until its decline in the mid-C19, Poole was considered one of the busiest ports in England, establishing strong trade links with Europe, the Baltic and North America. The Hotel du Vin is a former merchant's house that was constructed in the second half of the C18 and is one of the largest houses in Poole. Sources indicate that it was built for Isaac Lester whose family was prominent in the Newfoundland trade, trading mainly in (cod liver) oil; the source of much of its wealth. Following Isaac's death in 1776, his brother, Benjamin (1724-1802) returned from North America to live in the Thames Street house, becoming Mayor in 1779 and a leading spokesman for the Poole merchants. He served as Member of Parliament from 1791 to 1796, and died in 1802.
SOURCES: RCHME, County of Dorset - South East (1970), pp 190, 234 N Pevsner & J Newman, Buildings of England- Dorset (1972), pp 322-23 Poole Borough Council, Benjamin Lester http://www.poole.gov.uk/legal/services/ref:S464C3F9E5C0C5/cf4orce:D467A384A74F45/ Accessed on 7th April 2010
REASON FOR DESIGNATION: The Hotel du Vin, formerly the Mansion House, dates from the second half of the C18 and is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Architecture: the proportions and thoughtful arrangement of features in an imaginative, classical composition * Fittings: there are a number of survivals of historic features including the staircase, some fireplaces, cornices and panelled doors * Historic interest: its close association with a prominent C18 family whose wealth was founded on the Newfoundland cod trade * Group value: it has strong contextual interest, having group value with a large number of listed buildings in Thames Street, and as one of the two largest houses in Poole is illustrative of the town's prosperity in the C18.
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 412615
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 13-Jul-2026 at 21:12:00.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.