Summary
A late-C18 coaching inn with remains of livery stables and carriage yard.
Reasons for Designation
The Royal Oak Hotel, a coaching inn thought to date from the late-C18, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* the Royal Oak presents an elegant façade to South Street, and has a carriage entrance to Etnam Street, together these advertise its function as a coaching inn;
* the building has strong architectural interest for the composition and detailing of its exterior, which plays a prominent role in the streetscape;
* the survival of some of the stable buildings allow the courtyard plan of the working coaching inn to be discerned and serve as a reminder of the role it played in horse drawn transport;
* internally, despite alterations, the locations of the public bar and a kitchen are the same as in C19 plans, and many historic details such as mouldings, doors and door frames survive from at least the C19.
Historic interest:
* the Royal Oak reflects national improvements in road connectivity in the C18 and acted as a transport hub connecting the market town of Leominster to the wider country;
* the inn acted as a venue for all sorts of entertainments and public and business meetings giving it a high level of community interest;
Group value:
* the building has strong group value with the numerous surrounding listed commercial buildings of near contemporary date.
History
Leominster is located at the intersection of routes running from Worcester to Aberystwyth and Hereford to Shrewsbury. It is a market town serving a large agricultural hinterland where production traditionally focussed on hops, cider, cattle and sheep. Its early wealth was built on the wool trade, and in the C18 and C19 leather working and textile production were the main industries carried out in the town. Before the railway came to Leominster in 1853, the town was reliant on horse drawn transport for movement of mail, news, people and goods. The hubs for horse transport were the coaching inns which kept stables of horses to replace tired teams from coaches with fresh ones while passengers would take refreshments in the inn.
The Royal Oak is a large former coaching inn located just south of the centre of Leominster, on the main road to Hereford. It is one of three Leominster inns (and 29 other taverns) detailed in the 1830 Pigot’s Trade Directory for Herefordshire, though by that year the Red Lion on Broad Street seemed to have the majority share of coach routes; the Royal Oak was only cited as a stop on routes to Presteigne and Worcester while the Red Lion was a calling point on the way to London, Hereford, Chester, Aberystwyth and Kington.
In appearance the Royal Oak is of late-C18 date. By this time most of the main roads in Herefordshire were administered by turnpike trusts, and the national network of mail coaches was developing meaning that the conditions were favourable for a large new coaching inn in Leominster. The late-C18 date is also supported by notes in the particulars for an 1888 auction sale which state that the Royal Oak was over 100 years old. There is reference in 1749 lease and release documents relating to transfer of land located near the sign of the Royal Oak in Leominster, so it is possible that the present building is a rebuilding of an earlier inn of the same name.
Billheads from the Royal Oak dating to the 1860s advertise that it sent an omnibus to meet every train at the station showing that demand remained for horse drawn transport. In 1888, (long after the arrival of the railway), the Royal Oak was still a large coaching inn which included a full livery stable. The 1888 auction sale particulars include a detailed plan of the ground floor which show multiple stable buildings and carriage sheds, as well as tack and boot rooms which enclosed two yards, each with access via their own carriage way to Etnam Street. Other rooms and buildings identified on the 1888 plan include: a large commercial room, a private banqueting room, a wash house, bottle store, wood store, beer house, larder, pantry, billiard room, bar and an engine room. There are two kitchens, two sitting rooms and two coffee rooms. The particulars also note that the property was connected to gas and water.
The Royal Oak was more than just a coaching inn and stables; it played an important role in the civic life of the town as a public meeting place, somewhere to conduct business and an entertainment venue. The large, ornately decorated principal room on the first floor would have provided a smart location for more formal assemblies. Newspaper reports from the early-C19 onwards document some of the activities carried out at the Royal Oak which included Masonic banquets, agricultural auctions and hop, seed and timber sales.
The rise of the motor car in the C20 meant that the stables and carriage sheds became obsolete, and most were demolished at some point after 1920, leaving the space for car parking. The large new function room which replaced some of the tack and coach buildings was in place by 1984. The inn continued in use as a hotel with a public bar and restaurant until its closure around 2015.
Details
A late-C18 coaching inn with remains of livery stables and carriage yard.
MATERIALS: the main building is brick in Flemish bond with stucco details and rustication to ground floor, it has a slate roof. Rear additions and stables are brick with slate roofs, and the detached carriage shed and stable block is brick and timber with slate and corrugated metal roofs.
PLAN: the hotel occupies a corner plot at the junction of South Street with Etnam Street. The northern boundary is with 15 South Street, the eastern with 1 Etnam Street. The main building is ‘F’ shaped in plan; it is double pile with its south elevation to Etnam Street extending east to form the base of the ‘F’. The South Street elevation has been extended north with a later wing of four bays. There are additions rear of the north end of the South Street frontage, with a three-storey, then a two-storey extension running east and linking to a large, later-C20 single-storey function room whose south elevation forms the north side of a courtyard. The Etnam Street elevation is continued to the east by a former stable building housing a carriage arch, then a low wall which turns north at its east end for a vehicle entrance to the courtyard. East of the vehicle entrance and forming the eastern boundary of the site is a long, north-south orientated former stable and carriage shed range.
EXTERIOR:
MAIN BUILDING
The main building is three stories under a double-hipped roof behind a parapet. It presents elevations to South Street in the west and Etnam Street in the south. The ground floor is clad with rusticated stucco. Chimney stacks are brick and are through the ridges of roofs, or at their gable or hipped ends.
The South Street elevation is five bays wide, with the central three bays projecting by the depth of a brick from the two flanking bays. The central bay houses a double doorway in a stucco doorcase which projects by a further brick’s depth. The doorcase is topped by a shallow keystone arch under a cornice. The other bays each have a large six-over-six sash window recessed into the walls. The top rusticated band of stucco extends outwards, emphasising the division between ground and first floors. The first floor is in brick, and here the principal function room is identifiable by its oversized six-over-six sashes in stucco shouldered architraves. A stucco platband separates the first from the second floor which again has a sash window to each bay; these are three-over-six lights in plain architraves. Above the second floor windows is a cornice parapet with a triangular pediment over the central three bays.
The Etnam Street elevation of the main building is also five bays wide. The ground floor continues the rusticated stucco with projected top band from around the corner on South Street. At ground floor level the two western bays are solid, the third bay has an oriel window, the two eastern bays have ten-over-ten sash windows. First and second stories are in brick with six-over-six sashes in plain architraves to each bay. The South Street elevation stucco platband continues here at the cill level of the second-floor windows. The stucco cornice parapet also continues from around the corner, again concealing the roof.
The east (rear) elevation of the main building is brick. It joins the rear, north side of the Etnam Street elevation at an obtuse angle by way of a narrow north-east facing elevation with scattered openings. At ground-floor level at the south end of the rear elevation is a single-storey lobby entrance which projects eastwards under a flat roof, this is excluded from the listing. There are six-over-six sashes to the first floor and three-over-three sashes to second floor. A dentil detail at the eaves continues the length of the rear of the building and around beneath the hip of the roof on the east side of the Etnam Street elevation. The first floor of this elevation is lit by a three-over-three sash and two-over-two sash and is visible over the top of the adjoining stable.
NORTH WING TO MAIN BUILDING
This wing is three bays with an additional window (former doorway) at ground floor level at its northern end. It is a later addition to the north of the main hotel building on South Street. Like the main building, the later wing is three stories high and it meets the older section at eaves height under a unifying cornice. Below the cornice the three floors of the two sections do not align.
The ground floor is in rusticated stucco to the heights of the shoulders of the round-headed openings which define its three bays and further window. The top of the stucco is marked by a cornice which flows up over each opening where it becomes a semi-circular keystone arch moulding. The openings are from north to south: a three-over-six sash (formerly a door), a panelled door with semi-circular fanlight (formerly a window), then two taller six-over-six sashes which almost reach ground level.
At first floor are three large six-over-six sashes in shouldered architraves with a platband at cill level. This arrangement is repeated at second floor, but windows here are shorter three-over-six sashes.
REAR EXTENSIONS TO NORTH WING
To the rear of the north wing, at its south end where it meets the older part of the hotel, there is a small outshot under a catslide from the rear slope of the main roof. A flat roof section forming a landing for a fire escape projects further east of this. North of the outshot is a mono-pitch roof over a fully glazed gallery which joins a pitched roof addition of three stories in height. This three-storey element has a pitched roof with a lower ridge height than that of the north wing which it meets at right angles. An eaves level dentil detail present on the rest of the rear elevations stops at this point. East of the three-storey addition is a pitched-roof brick building of two stories, and east again of this is the function room. This is a later-C20 long, broad, single-storey building under a shallow pitched roof and is excluded from the listing.
STABLE BUILDING FACING ETNAM STREET
This adjoins the east end of the main hotel block on Etnam Street and faces south. It is a two-storey brick building under a slate covered pitched roof. At ground-floor level the Etnam Street elevation has a large carriage entrance with a timber door to the west end, and a three-over-six light window to the east. At first-floor level double casement windows are centred above the two ground floor openings, there is a dentil decoration at the eaves. The east elevation is a gable which is solid except for a single centrally located six-over-six sash at first floor level.
The courtyard-facing north elevation has an open carriage arch at its west end with a six light casement window above it. The east end has a single doorway at both ground and first floor levels, with no access to the first-floor door. There is a small window just below the eaves level east of the carriage entrance, and a three-over-three light window below that.
INTERIOR: generally skirting boards, fitted cabinets, ceiling cornices, dado and picture rails and door and window frames survive well. Arched doorways are a common decorative feature. There are four-panel doors throughout the building indicating an extensive Victorian refurbishment. Alterations in the C20 mean that none of the ground floor rooms retain the exact layouts depicted in the 1888 plan, though the older plan is still readable. The most common changes have been the removal of internal walls to enlarge rooms and the addition of partitions for toilets and en-suites.
The main door on South Street opens via a small porch to an east / west running main hallway with a staircase to the rear. A corridor runs north from the hallway to a second, central stair. The stairway in the main hall is open string with a simple rounded handrail and two slim, plain, square-profile bannisters to a step. The central stair is the same style but rises all the way to the second floor with a series of right-angled turns. The large ground floor room with windows to South Street was formerly a commercial room, small coffee room and private banqueting room. Now one room, it has a deep ceiling cornice to its northern end. The doorway to this now enlarged room is set at an angle to the main entrance hallway and is decorated with a curved archway over the door head, margin lights and slender Corinthian columns on top of bases with panels decorated with swags. This doorway appears to have been relocated during a C20 remodelling when what were three front rooms were knocked through into one. Other ground floor rooms include the now ‘L’ shaped bar with late C20 fittings to the south-east, and kitchen and toilets to the north-east.
At its top, the main hall stair makes a turn at right angles to the right to a first floor landing from where the main function room is accessed to the front of the building. This main room is now divided into two with the smaller section to its south end, the whole is decorated with pilasters and a moulded cornice. Other rooms to this and second floor are bedrooms with partitioned en-suites. Some bedrooms retain simple fireplaces, occasionally with cast iron grates.
The attic space has been stripped back to timber frame partitions and bare brick walls. The roof structure is quite shallow in pitch with trusses having a king post and a single collar with no tie beam. There are cellars under the South Street elevation of the main building and its north wing, accessed from stairs down from within the flat-roofed rear lobby and the northern entrance on South Street.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES:
EASTERN CARRIAGE SHEDS AND STABLE RANGE
The eastern boundary of the site, across the courtyard east of the rear of the hotel building is marked by a north / south orientated stable and carriage shed range. The southernmost part of the range is a single-storey brick building under a mono-pitch metal roof. The south elevation is solid brick, the west elevation is timber framed with brick infill. This was formerly a two-storey stable block which has been reduced in height and partly rebuilt. Adjoining the former stable building and continuing the range to the north are two single-storey carriage sheds, open on their west sides where the pitched roof is supported by wooden columns. The first, narrower shed range has a corrugated metal roof, the second deeper plan, northern shed has a slate roof.
