The King and Queen Hotel

Details

BRIGHTON

TQ3104SW MARLBOROUGH PLACE
577-1/40/495 (West side)
19/03/97 Nos.14, 15 AND 16
The King and Queen Hotel

II

Public house. Dated 1931 on rainwater head to upper dormers.
By Clayton and Black. Red brick in English bond to the main
part of the building, with dressings of stone to ground floor
and applied half-timber and plaster to the upper floors,
weatherboarding to dormers, roof of tiles.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys with attics plus a lower wing to the
north, of 2 storeys with attics. Built in the Neo-Tudor style
and composed of the most popular and picturesque features of
C16 domestic architecture. Tudor-arched entrance to centre of
main part, with a massive timber lintel; one flat-arched
entrance to right with hoodmould and panelled door with
grille, one further flat-arched entrance under the right-hand
gable with a Tudor- arched moulding and panelled double doors
with grilles; immediately to the left of the right-hand gable
is a stone-faced staircase bay with a pair of Tudor-arched
windows with one transom under a single hoodmould.
The rest of the front of the main block is so complex that it
is best described by a summary of the main parts: a broad
central bay, 2 outer bays, and one bay in between. To the left
is a 3-storey gabled bay, the first 2 storeys canted and
having elaborate carving over the mullioned and transomed
windows and to the angles of the bay; the second floor is
jettied out with pendants and Henry VIII and one of his queens
modelled in coloured plaster either side of a flat-arched
window; decorative barge boards to gable. The central bay has
2 more figures of Henry VIII and a queen bracketed out at
first floor level in front of a 4-light window; above that a
slightly projecting 3-light window with grotesques to the
corbels and a run of 4 'toplights' to either side; bressumer
decorated with leaf-carving and elaborately carved
bargeboards. The right-hand bay is of plaster from the first
floor upwards with flat-arched windows to first and second
floor linked by a decorative balustrade; the particular
feature of this bay is that the face of the gable is divided
into lozenge patterns filled with emblems in coloured plaster;
decorative barge boards; set back behind the gable is an
embattled tower with heads of sheep projecting on either side,
and a further half-timbered gable above and behind that. Lead
gutters on wrought iron brackets decorated with modelled
emblems. The roof between the principal bays has gabled [?]
dormers at second-floor level on the right, with paired gabled
dormers above with weatherboarding, and a single gabled dormer
to the left. Stone stack with brick shafts next to tower.
The lower wing to the north has a broad carriage entrance with
curved braces, pedestrian entrances to either side, and a shop
front in the northernmost bay; bays on the ground floor
created by circular brick columns with stone abaci carrying
timber beams; the first floor is faced with half-timber
infilled with brick and has 4 flat-arched windows; the
carriage entrance has a mock portcullis and the side entrances
have open-framed doors with fearsome wrought-iron
embellishments; lead guttering on wrought-iron brackets with
modelled emblems; 2 gabled dormers in the lower wing and one
stone side stack with brick shafts.
The beams in the archways leading from the street to a
courtyard are decorated with oversized bands of grapes
modelled in plaster.
To the courtyard this wing presents a balustraded and gabled
range of brick and half-timber, flanked by half-timbered
chamfered bays, which are of 2 storeys to the left and
first-floor-only to the right, both elaborately carved at the
angles and surmounted by carved figures of knights, monks et
al. The west side of the courtyard has a timber-framed
verandah with pantiled roof, and the north side a 2-storey
open galleried range of timber and brick with tiled roof,
conical at the corner.
INTERIOR: public bar. This was originally divided into 3
spaces, and alterations were made in 1967; but important
features remain: original bar front of plank construction with
wrought-iron foot rail, and late C20 superstructure; east
gallery to north end, with elaborately carved bressumer and
open splats to balustrade, the upper part now glazed;
timber-framing to first floor at south end with bracketed
canted oriel with elaborate carving at angles; original
fireplaces at either end; 4-sided settle with carved uprights
and bands at south end; 2 settles with linenfold panelling to
sides at north end; quasi-heraldic glass to windows in west
and south walls, some replacement; central curved stair to
first floor inserted, probably in 1967; panelled billiard room
at south-west corner with flat-arched fireplace with Dutch
tiles under a carved mantelshelf, and some window-panes
decorated with designs in yellow stain. Staircase to gallery
and function room with ornate square newels, open splats to
balustrade and carved string; stained-glass panels to
staircase window depicting a Spenserian knight and a damsel
with a hawk in a more pictorial style than the rest.
Gallery, now restaurant. Tudor-arched fireplace with painted
shields over; some window-panes decorated with emblems in
yellow stain, and quasi-heraldic and emblematic designs to
toplights. Function Room. Flat-arched hearth with bracketed
mantelshelf, the brackets in the form of carved heads and the
shelf carved with interlaced foliage and beasts; painted
emblems on chimney breast; barrel-vaulted ceiling apart from
one bay to south; panelled doors with grilles to south.
(Carder T: The Encyclopaedia of Brighton: Lewes: 1990-).




Listing NGR: TQ3130604440

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

482134

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Carder, T, Encyclopaedia of Brighton, (1990)

End of official list entry

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