Summary
Hotel, built in 1862-1863 to designs by Benjamin Bucknall (1833-1895); billiard room added in 1867; further alterations in 1924 and the later C20.
Reasons for Designation
The Imperial Hotel, a hotel built in 1862-1863 to designs by Benjamin Bucknall, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as an assured and imposing design by a significant architect, Benjamin Bucknall, with his characteristic use of local limestone for as many of the building’s features as possible;
* for the notable quality of the stone masonry;
* a striking corner building in a prominent location, which makes the most of its position opposite the town’s railway station.
Historic interest:
* as part of the mid-C19 development of Stroud, in particular the move towards greater tourism to the area after the advent of the railway.
Group value:
* with the Great Western Railway station opposite (Grade II), the GWR Station House to the west (Grade II), and the Goods Shed to the south-east (Grade II*), with which it forms a functional group.
History
The Imperial Hotel, was built in 1863, on a site previously occupied by a spoil heap just to the north of Stroud railway station, which had been constructed in 1845, along with a goods shed and company offices a short distance to the east. The spoil from the building of the station and goods shed had been left in its yard until the early 1860s, when it was flattened, and the site taken on by a Mr Buck, who had the new Imperial Family and Commercial Hotel built. Alfred M Roberts, a local hotelier, ran the business. The announcement of the opening, on 12 October 1863, was made in newspapers as far afield as Hereford
The building was designed by Benjamin Bucknall (1833-1895), an architect who lived and worked in Stroud, and later nearby Rodborough, who had been a companion and pupil of master of the Gothic, Viollet-le-Duc, in France. As a result, he was an exponent of true Gothic Revival architecture, best known for his work at Woodchester Park in Gloucestershire (about 1854-1868, Grade I), the great unfinished country house for William Leigh, begun by Hansom and continued by Bucknall. As Mark Girouard noted in The Victorian Country House, "To Bucknall, the point of Gothic was that it was a system of construction; to revive the detail without the construction was to play at fancy dress architecture." Bucknall was drawn to the Catholic faith by Elizabeth Matthews, a member of his family's large household, who founded the Convent of St Rose of Lima in Stroud (1867, Grade II), for which Bucknall designed the conventual buildings. In the second half of the C19 he moved, with his architect brothers, to Swansea in South Wales, undertaking a number of commissions for Roman Catholic churches, domestic buildings and schools. He later entered into partnership with TR Donnelly of Birmingham, at which time he undertook work at a convent for the community of Poor Clares at Baddesley Clinton in Warwickshire. Bucknall emigrated to Algiers in about 1873, staying in North Africa until his death, and undertaking domestic commissions there. Bucknall’s design included his customary use of stone for as many details as possible, here even in the creation of stone guttering at the eaves of the roofs, and an open arcade across the western, entrance front.
The hotel served travellers on the railway, from London and the Midlands, as well as local families. A billiard room was added to the building soon after 1867, the year in which tenders were invited for its construction. The building remained in use as an hotel throughout the remainder of the C19 and C20; at first under the management of Mr Roberts, but later run by Mrs Wade until 1895, and then her daughter, Mrs Frances Tealor Lawson. The hotel was sold in 1924, and in 1925, was advertised as an “Artistic Lounge and Hotel Retreat, newly furnished and made convenient for Morning Coffee, Afternoon Teas and Light Refreshments”, under new ownership. The facilities were open to non-residents as well as those staying in the hotel.
The building remains in its original use as a hotel and restaurant. It underwent refurbishment in 1950, the same year in which Princess Elizabeth, now Her Majesty The Queen, visited the hotel as part of a tour of Stroud; and sundry later C20 alterations.
Details
An hotel, built in 1862-1863 to designs by Benjamin Bucknall (1833-1895); billiard room added in 1867; further alterations in 1924 and the later C20.
MATERIALS: local oolitic limestone ashlar, with exposed brick to the northern return; ashlar stacks; plain clay tile roofs, in bands of red and grey. Cast iron rainwater goods.
PLAN: the building is orientated north west-south east, with its long elevation to the south. It lies across the station yard from the railway tracks, with which it runs parallel. The constrained site means that it is bounded to the north and east by buildings which front on to Russell Street. The plan has principal rooms ranged along the southern side, with a central stair hall. The upper floors have rooms off a central corridor.
EXTERIOR: the building is of three storeys; the entrance elevation, to the west, is of six bays, and the long elevation to the south, fifteen bays. The building has deep, hipped roofs covered in bands of red and grey clay tiles. Three very large, rectangular ashlar stacks with integral, square-section stone pots are set across the ridges at the western end, with two others rising from the eaves along the southern elevation. Stone guttering runs around both elevations, carried on a series of moulded stone corbels. The windows are horned timber sashes, two-over-two panes, set within stone openings with moulded shoulders, and with sloping stone cills. The ground floor windows are wider and deeper than those to the rooms above. The floors are defined by projecting bands running continuously around both elevations. The entrance elevation, to the west, has a recessed ground floor, the upper storeys carried out over an open loggia on an arcade of six chamfered, segmental arches springing from seven broad stone columns with moulded heads and octagonal feet; at the southern end, a similar arch is used to terminate the loggia, in line with the south elevation. The end bays under the loggia have multi-paned glazed doors, with windows to the four central bays. The bay rhythm to the long, south elevation is slightly irregular, to allow for the lateral stacks and for the internal layout of bedrooms. Three narrow doorways are set in the sixth, eleventh and fifteenth bay positions, in shouldered openings which match those of the windows. A metal sign bearing the legend IMPERIAL HOTEL is mounted centrally between the first and second floor windows. A fire escape stair is attached across the two easternmost bays.
INTERIOR: the interior has public rooms on the ground floor, and bedrooms for guests on the upper floors. The ground floor has a central stair hall. The rooms to the western end have been partly opened up, but wall stubs indicate that there were originally four smaller rooms to this end of the building, now forming separate areas of the bar, with chimney breasts intact, though the fire surrounds have been removed. These have a mixture of flagstone and timber floors, and plain, convex cornicing. The large room on the south side remains in its original form, and two further large rooms at the eastern end have been opened up into a single large space. The plan of the service areas is complex, with lavatories and other services inserted. The first and second floor plans are similar, each with a central corridor running through the spine of the building, and rooms off to either side. The rooms have all been slightly altered to allow for en-suite bathrooms, mainly by the addition of pairs of bathrooms between rooms, accessed one from each side, which has left the earlier floor plan readily legible. The finishes in the bedrooms are almost all from the mid- to late C20.
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 11 May 2022 to amend the description.
