Liverpool Arms Hotel

Cadw's description

Location

Fronting the street in the block of buildings near the W end of Castle Street between Gadlys Lane and Steeple Lane.

History

A house of c1700, evidence for which is the staircase at the rear. The original building was enlarged and converted to a hotel in the late C18 or early C19, and it is shown as the Liverpool Arms on the 1829 town plan. In 1937 it had a portico and balcony on pairs of turned wooden posts, with balustrade, which has since been replaced. Otherwise the building escaped Victorian remodelling.

Exterior

A 3-storey 7-bay hotel of scribed roughcast, slate roof, and roughcast stacks to the R and to the L of centre in the front roof slope. The central entrance has an open modern porch on square posts, and steps up to a recessed replacement door. The lower and middle storeys have moulded architraves to 18-pane hornless sash windows, with broad and smooth-rendered sill band in the middle storey. Between middle and upper storeys is a raised band with 'Liverpool Arms Hotel' in big raised letters. The upper storey has shorter 6-pane hornless sash windows, of which the 2nd bay is blind and the 4th has horned sashes.

The rear has extensive additions, above which are 2 rendered gabled bays, and some 4-pane and 2-pane sashes, including the stair windows on the R side.

Interior

The interior is modernised, although ground-floor rooms on the L side of the entrance retain panelled shutters. On the L side, at the rear, is an original full-height dog-leg stair with turned balusters, plain square newels and panelled sides.

Reason for designation

Listed grade II* for its special architectural interest as a fine Georgian hotel with significant earlier origin and with an especially well-preserved front, and for its contribution to the historical integrity of Castle Street.