Description

PLYMOUTH

SX4754 MILLBAY ROAD, Hoe
740-1/57/292 (South side)
01/05/75 Duke of Cornwall Hotel and attached
forecourt walls and railings
(Formerly Listed as:
MILLBAY ROAD, Plymouth
Duke of Cornwall Hotel)

GV II

Large hotel. 1865 by C Forster Hayward of London, built to
cater for the GWR passengers to Millbay.
MATERIALS: coursed Plymouth limestone rubble with mostly
granite dressings including quoins, those to tower rock-faced;
steep asbestos slate roof with stone mostly gabled dormers
over an elaborate terracotta modillion cornice and iron eaves
balustrade, the main roof surmounted by a clearstorey with C20
windows; tall stone, brick and terracotta axial and lateral
stacks, the 4 front lateral stacks with column shafts with
capitals, all with moulded cornices except for 2 battered
stacks flanking the (6-storey) porch gable and tall stone
stack with 4 chamfered brick shafts surmounted by spiral
terracotta pots to left of tower.
Baronial Gothic style.
PLAN: large double-depth plan with articulated front and
taller polygonal tower on the right.
EXTERIOR: 3 storeys plus 2-tier attic over basement; 11-bay
front with approximately central porch, narrow
2-storey-plus-attic bowed oriel with steep conical roof
between left-hand bays and 4-storey plus attic and belvedere
polygonal tower on the right. Steep polygonal tower roof on
right, to belvedere with round-arched windows and eaves on
brackets to shallower capping roof, the main tower roof
reslated 1994. Many original hornless sashes without glazing
bars, all chamfered openings: transomed and with 2-centred
arches to ground floor, square-headed to 1st floor and squat
2-centred lights with column mullions with capitals to most
2nd-floor openings, similar mullions also to principal windows
to upper floors of tower and to upper floors of bay left of
tower. Tall ground floor bays with flanking buttresses with
paired brackets to carry cast-iron balcony. Bay left of tower
with tripartite pointed lights over ogee lights to upper
floors and with cast-iron balustraded balcony on brackets
between the floors. Porch has cinquefoil gable rose over
triple lights over 4-light window over triple lights and there
are triple squat lights above a tripartite doorway with
pointed arches to overlights and glazed doors; wood and glazed
canopy in front of doorway.
INTERIOR: not inspected but likely to be of interest.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: forecourt walls with granite plinth
surmounted by cast-iron railings with urn finials and granite
piers with iron lamps set on the tapered caps.
A fine example of a grand hotel designed in a Baronial Gothic
style, clearly influenced by the style chosen for some of the
hotels built for the great London termini.
(The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-:
665).

Listing NGR: SX4719954193

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Duke of Cornwall Hotel at Wikipedia
• Duke of Cornwall Hotel official website
• Wikidata Q5312994

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  [(Bedfordshire, Huntingdon and Peterborough)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1968)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)