Former Market Hotel

Summary

A hotel and warehouse of 1883 by Thomson Plevins of Plevins and Norrington, for H E Jordan, pram maker.

Reasons for Designation

The former Market Hotel, now Comfort Inn, of 1883 by Thomson Plevins for H E Jordan, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* for the quality of its design and composition, which forms a landmark statement at the northern end of Station Street;
* for the quality and extent of the architectural detailing which survives across its facades, speaking to the ambitions of the building's owner.

Historic interest:

* for the association with Thomson Plevins, a regional architect of note who produced much work in Birmingham in the later-C19;
* for the unusual original combination of hotel and warehouse.

History

The Market Hotel on Station Street dates from 1883 and was built to designs by architect Thomson Plevins of Plevins & Norrington. The building was originally part hotel and part warehouse. The building is shown on the Goad Fire Insurance Plan of 1895 as 'Market Hotel' and a basket warehouse. The building was originally built for H E Jordan, a pram maker whose address on the original plans is given as Dudley Street. His initials are displayed in decorative panels on the building, alongside those of the architect.

By the time of the 1937 Goad plan, the warehouse section of the building on its western side has been incorporated into the hotel. The presence of an early-C20 stair in what is now (2024) the reception of the hotel would suggest that this happened early in the century, understood to be after 1913. This conversion also involved the replacement of the timber street frontage to the warehouse with the present stone and brick frontage. In the late-C20 a number of windows across the building were replaced.

Thomson Plevins designed numerous buildings in Birmingham, including the Grand Hotel (Grade II*, NHLE 1391246), the Crown Hotel (Grade II, NHLE 1488082) and was surveyor for the Newhall Estate.

The building remains in use as a hotel.

Details

A hotel and warehouse of 1883 by Thomson Plevins of Plevins and Norrington, for H E Jordan, pram maker.

MATERIALS: the building is of brick with sandstone and terracotta dressings and panels, under a slate roof.

PLAN: the building stands at the north-eastern end of Station Street and is largely rectangular on plan.

EXTERIOR: the building is of four storeys plus attic with mostly timber sash windows throughout. The attic storey is set back behind a parapet, with dormer windows facing front, side and rear. The elevations are of brick with sandstone dressings, and there are decorative terracotta panels in the spaces between the windows of first and second floors, and again above the fourth floor windows. There are regularly spaced sandstone bands dividing the brickwork across the elevations.

The Station Street elevation has three large bays; that to the right of three windows is the former warehouse part of the building. The entrance here, now the principal entrance to the hotel, is in an arched stone surround with a large, arched window adjacent. The first and second floors project forward with curved ends to the bay. The central terracotta panel displays the initials 'HEJ'.

The central portion of the building has a stone ground floor for the hotel bar entrance, with a two-storey canted bay window rising through first and second floors. This central section is also demarcated by the tall chimneys which rise above it.

The left section has two windows with a similarly curved first and second floor, before an angled corner containing the original entrance to the hotel. This has the door in an arched recess with granite columns supporting carved brackets which support a cornice and projecting square bay which rises above. Above the door is the word 'HOTEL'. There is a small pediment above the second floor window.

The Dudley Street elevation has a central portion of three windows; these are flanked by pilasters which rise through first and second floors, and further windows to either side. The outer bays have curved projections between ground and first floor and small balconies between first and second floor with stone balusters supported on corbels. The pilasters feature carved decoration with the date '18' on the left and '83' on the right. Above, these have small swan neck pediments. At the top entablature level are the initials 'HEJ' to the left and 'TP' to the right.

INTERIOR: the interior of the former warehouse part of the building has been converted for hotel use and contains an early-C20 stair with timber bannister and moulded newel posts. There is a small area of timber panelling here between ground and first floor, and a decrative leaded window. A room at basement level has some moulded cornicing.

The ground floor of the original hotel part of the building has moulded cornicing to the bar area, and some cast iron columns with decorative capitals. The original hotel stair survives from first floor upwards. This has thick turned balusters and newel posts and a skylight at the top level with some surviving stained glass.

Hotel rooms are modernised with suspended ceilings.

Sources

Books and journals
Foster, A, Pevsner, N, Wedgwood, A, Birmingham and the Black Country, (2022), 209

Other
Goad Fire Insurance Plan 1883
Goad Fire Insurance Plan 1939
Plans held at Birmingham City Archives

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