Imperial Hotel in Stroud listed at Grade II to celebrate Queen's Platinum Jubilee
The 19th-century hotel is one of six buildings to receive the protected status
The Imperial Hotel in Stroud, Gloucestershire, is one of six buildings across the UK to be listed at Grade II, as part of Her Majesty the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Built in 1863, the Imperial Hotel was designed by local Stroud architect Benjamin Becknall.
Inspired by Cotswold market halls and continental colonnades (which shielded shoppers from the elements at ground level) the hotel’s design incorporated local limestone into its impressive stone masonry, most notably in the stone guttering at the eaves of the roofs.
The Hotel’s location opposite the Great Western Railway station made it a popular destination for train travellers between London and the Midlands and contributed to the areas growing tourism industry following the railway advancements of the Industrial Revolution.
In 1950, it underwent refurbishment - the same year in which Princess Elizabeth, now Her Majesty the Queen, visited the hotel as part of a tour of Stroud.
The 19th-century hotel has been listed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on Historic England’s advice.
What are the other newly listed sites?
The new listings - which range from a theatre and an archive to a church and markers on a major motorway - aim to highlight some of the many important places from Her Majesty’s reign and to reflect the important social, technical and cultural changes which have taken place over the past 70 years:
• MIDLANDS – All Saints’ Church, Shard End, Birmingham (Grade II): The first church to be built in Birmingham after the Second World War and one of the first to be consecrated during Her Majesty’s reign.
• LONDON – Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch, Greater London (Grade II): A quintessential 1970s modernist theatre, named after the Queen
• SOUTH EAST - Hampshire Archives, Winchester, Hampshire (Grade II): At around 30 years old, the youngest building to be listed for the Jubilee, made using pioneering archive design techniques
• YORKSHIRE - Sun Pavilion and Colonnade, Harrogate, North Yorkshire (Grade II): A 1930s team rooms visited by The Queen following major restoration
• NORTH WEST – M62 motorway Yorkshire/Lancashire commemorative markers and plaques (Grade II): Markers celebrating this major motorway’s opening by the Queen in 1971