The Rutland Arms Hotel

Summary

The Rutland Arms Hotel, a coaching inn of 1804 built for the Duke of Rutland, extended in 1895.

Reasons for Designation

The Rutland Arms is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the quality of its architectural design, which forms a prominent feature in Rutland Square;
* for the degree of survival of the building externally and internally, where it retains numerous features of interest.

Historic interest:

* for its funding by the Duke of Rutland, and subsequent association with Bakewell and the development of the town;
* as a notable example of an early-C19 coaching inn.

History

The building of the Rutland Arms commenced in 1803, as part of the Duke of Rutland's plans to improve the town of Bakewell and develop it as a rival to the Duke of Devonshire's spa town at Buxton. The Duke of Rutland was the principal landowner in the area, with the historic family seat of Haddon Hall to the south of the town. The foundation stone of the new inn was laid by the Duke's land agent, George Fillingham. The inn was erected behind the previous establishment, the White Horse, which was subsequently demolished and the Rutland Arms opened in 1804. The coat of arms over the main door, carved by White Watson, was added in 1815. The stables for the inn were erected on the northern side of Rutland Square (NHLE 1316481).
The new establishment was run as a successful coaching inn throughout the C19, with the Greaves family the innkeepers for much of the century. The inn had an associated farm tenancy to provide produce for the business, as well as the control of fishing rights along a stretch of the River Wye and various coaching services which enabled them to ensure a supply of customers. Some well-known names had connections with the inn during the C19, either through connections with the proprietors, such as Joseph Paxton, or as known customers, such as Charles Dickens, who wrote of the Rutland Arms in his short storey, "The Warilows of Welland, or the Modern Prodigal". In it, he described the inn with its main entrance for those at the upper end of society, and the side entrance for other classes which gave access to the 'Travellers' Room'. The tenancy changed at the end of the C19, and in 1895 the Duke of Rutland funded the erection of a new assembly room at the rear of the building.

The hotel remains in operational use.

Details

The Rutland Arms Hotel, a coaching inn of 1804 built for the Duke of Rutland, extended in 1895.

MATERIALS: the building is of coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs.

PLAN: the principal hotel building faces east onto Rutland Square, with its later assembly room set back and projecting to the north-west.

EXTERIOR: the principal block is of three storeys and five bays, with a central main entrance of glazed door and fanlight under a projecting porch supported on Doric columns, supporting the Duke of Rutland's coat of arms above. A further bay, slightly recessed, is to the north. There is a first floor plat band across the elevation, quoins at each end and a moulded eaves cornice above. Windows are 8/12 sashes to ground and first floor; 8/8 to second floor and have projecting sills and grooved lintels. The roof above has a series of tall ashlar chimney stacks.

The northern elevation has a secondary entrance with projecting canopy supported on deep brackets. Beyond, the single storey 1895 extension is in the same style with a hipped roof.

INTERIOR: the main entrance to the hotel opens onto the principal stair which rises the full height of the building. It is open string with a wreathed and ramped handrail and three stick balusters to each tread. Much of the ground floor layout has been altered, but there are some surviving internal doors and ceiling cornices. The front left room has a cast-iron grate with side hobs, consoles and relief scrollwork in a wooden surround, and the rear room has a similar grate in a marble surround with collonettes.

The assembly room has a plain ceiling cornice and doors in moulded timber surrounds surmounted by broken pediments.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

468192

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Hartwell, Clare, Pevsner, Nikolaus, Williamson, Elizabeth, The Buildings of England: Derbyshire, (2016), 133

Other
'The Rutland Arms: A Brief History', W. Swales, 2020

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.

Print the official list entry