Prince of Wales Hotel Including Area Railings

Details

SOUTHPORT

SD3317SW LORD STREET
664-1/11/110 (East side)
Prince of Wales Hotel including area
railings

GV II

Hotel. 1876-7, probably enlarged at an early date; altered
later. By E Kenrick. Red brick in Flemish bond with sandstone
dressings (now painted white), slate mansard roof. Domestic
Gothic Style. Large L-shaped plan on corner site, plus rear
wings to main range.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys plus basements and attics in a bipartite
composition of 3:5 bays (the 3-bay portion possibly an
addition of 1912 by EW Johnson). The 5-bay portion is almost
symmetrical, the centre and outer bays breaking forward, the
centre gabled while the outer bays have mansard attics with
gabled dormers. String courses, sill bands, and bracketed
plastered eaves coving; basement area protected by bowed Art
Nouveau-style wrought-iron railings with panels of floral
motifs (carried across the whole range).
The centre has a prominent added or altered cast-iron and
glass porte cochere, protecting an entrance with Gothic
colonettes which have stiff-leaf capitals, under a 2-centred
arch; a flanking pair of painted stone pinnacles above the
porte cochere; a canted bay window to the first and second
floors, and a broad attic gable with oversailing ornamental
arched plaster-and-timber-framing a pair of 2-centred arched
windows.
The outer bays have wide 3-storey canted bay windows, and
mansard attics with gableted dormers in the same style as the
centre. All these windows are sashed and have columnar
mullions, carved imposts, stilted heads (segmental at ground
and second floor, segmental-pointed at first floor) and
painted stone tympani with incised decoration.
The intermediate bays have canted oriels at ground floor
(probably inserted), paired segmental-headed sashes at first
floor with similarly enriched imposts and tympani,
round-headed sashes at second floor under 2-centred arches,
and flat-roofed dormers (altered or inserted). Beneath each
first-floor window is an oblong panel with moulded surround
containing mosaic enrichment (now painted black).
The 3-bay portion to the left, with a recessed centre flanked
by gabled outer bays with 3-storey canted bay windows, is in
generally similar style with similar detailing.
The right-hand return wall of the main range (to Portland
Street) is a long 14-window range, beginning with a
semicircular bay carried up to an attic turret with a gabled
dormer and a steeply-pitched conical roof; beyond that are a
gabled 3-storey canted bay and a semicircular bay window.
INTERIOR: principal features are a pair of ballrooms projected
from the rear of the main range, on different levels but
adjacent to one another and now interconnected by curved
double staircase in the former orchestra stage of the main
ballroom.
The main ballroom has massive sliding doors with bevel-edged
plate glass, a gallery on 2 sides with foliated cast-iron
balustrades and a curved staircase at each end, and a very
large stained glass skylight with moulded plaster surround and
a huge circular glass lantern suspended from the centre.
(Formerly it had Ionic pilasters and a moulded plaster
cornice.)
The second ballroom, adjoining on a higher level to the south,
has fluted Ionic pilasters and a similar skylight.
Forms group with associated boundary walls and gate piers
(qv).



Listing NGR: SD3341017026

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

479072

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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