Source/Archive record SCH8704 - Heritage Statement: Royal Hotel, Nantwich Road, Crewe

Heritage Statement prepared in 2018 in support of proposed alterations to the Royal Hotel and construction of a car park on land to its rear, Nantwich Road, Crewe. The Royal Hotel is a locally listed building. It is of historic interest as a hotel associated with the expansion of Crewe following introduction of the railway and the establishment of Crewe Railway Station. The Morris and Co Directory of 1864 and the Post Office Directory of 1878 lists the Royal Hotel as a public establishment. The County Court was held at the Royal Hotel once a month. This suggests that a hotel had been built on the site by 1864. In 1878 the Royal Hotel was also used as a meeting place of the Masonic Lodge. No record was found of the Royal Hotel serving as a post office in 1864 or 1878. The extract of the 1877 Ordnance Survey map shows a ‘Hotel’ at the south west of the site. There was a group of rectilinear buildings set back from the road at the north of the site. The railway was located to the east of the site, and was reached via Nantwich Road. The surrounding land was still in agricultural use. The primary architectural interest of the Royal Hotel lies in the south Nantwich Road elevation and the plainer Pedley Street elevation. The building has been altered including removal of a broached spire sometime after 1946, additional windows, removal of chimneys and the addition of modern signage. The outbuildings to the north of the building were added to the site and have been heavily altered. The range to the north of the hotel is likely to have been reconstructed using the interior wall of a previous building on the site which now forms an outer wall.