Imperial Hotel

IMPERIAL HOTEL, TAW VALE

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1385348
Date first listed:
31-Dec-1973
List Entry Name:
Imperial Hotel
Statutory Address:
IMPERIAL HOTEL, TAW VALE
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Date:
2004-06-20
Reference:
IOE01/12626/23
Rights:
© Dr Barbara Hilton. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1385348
Date first listed:
31-Dec-1973
Date of most recent amendment:
29-Sept-1999
List Entry Name:
Imperial Hotel
Statutory Address 1:
IMPERIAL HOTEL, TAW VALE

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
IMPERIAL HOTEL, TAW VALE

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:
Devon
District:
North Devon (District Authority)
Parish:
Barnstaple
National Grid Reference:
SS 55973 32884

Details

BARNSTAPLE

SS5532 TAW VALE
684-1/4/229 (North East side)
31/12/73 Imperial Hotel
(Formerly Listed as:
TAW VALE PARADE
Imperial Hotel)

GV II

Hotel. Largely 1902 (Pevsner), incorporating a c1800 house at
the W end. Smooth plastered; natural slate roof with lead
rolls; stacks with red brick shafts with corbelled cornices.
c1800 house is symmetrical, 2 rooms wide. The hotel has been
built around this and to the E with a large entrance/stair
hall to E of the house.
3 storeys. Asymmetrical but regular 2:3:2:10-window range
(2:3:2-window to the c1800 house). Deep eaves on moulded
brackets; brick eaves course; moulded string at 2nd-floor cill
level. Old house is symmetrical with Doric porch with moulded
cornice with central roundel and 2-leaf small-pane glazed
door. Ground-floor bay windows have rounded corners and are
glazed with 4-pane horned sashes. The moulded string above was
the cornice of the house before an extra storey was added with
3 similar sashes to the 2nd storey.
The wing to the left has tall small-pane windows on the ground
floor and 6 over one-pane sashes on the first floor and 4-pane
sashes on the second floor.
To right of the c1800 house a one-bay projection has a tall
French roof with wrought-iron railings round the top. A
2-storey flat-roofed entrance block projects off this to the
front with a 2-bay arcade on the ground floor and a third arch
on the return with pilastered round-headed moulded arches with
keyblocks. One opening is a door with plain fanlight, the
other 2 are windows glazed with plate glass. The first floor
of the entrance block is glazed with ribbon windows and
crowned with decorative iron railings.
The remainder of the hotel, 6 bays, has a canted corner and
breaks forward to the right. Ground-floor windows are glazed
with C20 timber 2-pane sashes, including 2 canted bays.
First-floor balcony, probably 1902, on cast-iron brackets with
frontal to match that on the entrance block. First-floor
windows mostly French with high transoms, re-glazed with
plastic windows, have cornices, some on consoles. Second-floor
windows are 2 and 4-pane sashes.
INTERIOR: large open-well timber stair to entrance hall with
turned balusters. The c1800 house has been altered with
ground-floor partition removed and 2 c1900 chimneypieces.
HISTORICAL NOTE: a painting shows the c1800 house as 2-storey
with projecting front wings.
The building is an important feature of Taw Vale and the C19
riverside development close to the Long Bridge.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N and Cherry B: Devon: London:
1989-: 159).

Listing NGR: SS5597332884

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
485810
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 159

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Imperial Hotel

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 07-Jun-2026 at 04:07:10.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

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.

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