Echo Memories: Kingly hostelry with a palatial air of opulence

Some of the richest people in the land had lain their heads on the pillows of its four-poster beds; some glittering society balls had been held within its walls.

But very few lamented its demolition in December 1890.

"The removal of this unimposing block of buildings, together with the tobacco shop adjoining, will be hailed with great satisfaction by the people of Darlington," reported the Darlington and Stockton Times.

"It opens out what has always been considered a very unsightly and the most dangerous part of Northgate for both conveyances and pedestrians."

As Echo Memories told last week, the hotel had been bought a few months earlier by R Fenwick and Company, of Sunderland, for £7,000 (about £350,000 in today's money). Fenwick then spent £50,000 (about £2.5m) on demolition and rebuilding. Darlington Corporation chipped in £200 (about £10,000) so that the new hotel would be set back about 6ft to make Northgate wider.

The new hotel opened on June 1, 1893 - exactly 110 years ago last Sunday. It was, said The Northern Echo, "a palatial hotel".

Another writer said it was "a temple of luxury". The Northern Review said the opening was "the crowning event that has taken place in Darlington for many years".

It was also the crowning creation of the career of its architect, GG Hoskins.

Next time you are in town, stand back and take a good look at it. It is a great building and in its heyday must have been very special. In terms of design, detail and scale, it leaves the Cornmill Centre beside it - the biggest mark the 20th Century made on the town centre - in the shade.

It is 150ft long and 70ft high, made of red bricks from Grosmont, in North Yorkshire, and "tawny red" terracotta made by the Burmantofts works, in Leeds.

On the first floor are "four spacious and elegant bay windows". The second floor windows all have balconettes and above them is a "richly moulded and billeted cornice with a deep enriched frieze in low relief". The top floor has a balustrade parapet and is finished with light green Westmoreland slates on the roof.

Nowadays we sneak into the King's Head through the unbecoming Priestgate side-entrance, which was added in 1967. In GG Hoskins' day, guests strode in through the dramatic door in the middle of Prebend Row and were ushered into a world of opulence.

"We pass through very beautifully designed wrought iron gates into a porch elegantly fitted up with a high and elaborate polished walnut wood dado, the panelled framing being filled in with mirrors," wrote the Echo's reporter 110 years ago.

"From this we reach the vestibule, and passing which we find ourselves in the spacious hall; the whole of the floors of these parts, as well as the corridors, are laid with marble mosaic pavement of a chaste pattern with effective bordering."

Off this spacious hall was the hotel reception, a grill room, buffet, smoke room, bar and large, general lavatory. All of this has gone now, wiped away as the Prebend Row shops have become deeper and deeper. But it must have been something in its day. An 1894 visitor wrote how he walked under an "elegant glazed awning stretching over the street" into the porch with the mosaic floor.

"Then we arrive at the great central hall, a lofty chamber, handsomely decorated, and paved in beautiful marble mosaic," he said.

"In this hall are the hotel offices, elegantly fitted up in pitch pine and ornamental glass.

"Even the general lavatory on this floor is a marvel of complete fitting, being fitted up with solid royal rouge marble, the walls lined with glazed tiles, and fitted with massive mirrors, and the whole equipment being in the perfection of sanitary work."

Once the visitor was flushed out from the magnificent toilet, he walked up the grand staircase "which from its beauty and spaciousness claims the admiration of all who have seen it".

On the first floor he found the ballroom which doubled as a banqueting hall and was overlooked by an orchestral gallery.

"This without question is the architect's chef d'oeuvre of the building and is justly entitled to the admiration so unanimously bestowed upon it," enthused the Echo on opening day.

The 1894 visitor was enraptured. "This is one of the finest chambers of its kind in the kingdom, magnificently decorated, sumptuously furnished, and with the decorations in white and gold, and the massive chandeliers available for gas or electric lighting, the whole presents a strikingly effective picture," he said.

"Ornamental pottery, vases, etc, of the choicest Doulton ware, with ferns, palms, and other ornamental plants grace every available corner, and the walls, richly lined with embossed paper, harmonising with the rich patterns of the carpets, while all around are costly mirrors and valuable engravings, which make up a scene of impressive splendour."

Also on this floor was a coffee room, a general drawing room, two sitting rooms, a commercial room, a writing room, and a large billiard room.

Sadly, the passage of time has not been kind to this floor, either, although the restaurant and cocktail bar that look out of the elegant bay windows over Prebend Row maintain a feel of opulence.

They, though, are a tantalising suggestion of the original grandeur of the whole hotel. The 1894 visitor concluded: "The creation of this colossal and comfortable palace is of great importance to the town.

"The hotel has been erected on a truly palatial scale, reminding one of an ocean liner on land, and every corner and cranny of it hums with absolute contentment, comfort and homeliness."

Since it opened 110 years ago, the King's Head has undergone numerous reorganisations and enlargements at the hands of uncountable owners.

In 1955, the Metropolitan Railway Surplus Lands Company spent £50,000 (nearly a £1m by today's prices) enlarging the ballroom over Woolworths so that it could accommodate 400 dancers.

This refurbishment moved the stables' entrance from the Northgate end of the building to the Priestgate end (although by then only motor cars were stabled behind the hotel).

In 1965, the new owner, Whelmar Hotels, bought part of the Darlington Co-op in Priestgate and converted it into a new wing, which opened in 1967. With Prebend Row being wholly devoted to shops, the unlovely Priestgate extension became the hotel's main entrance and GG Hoskins' drama was lost.

In 1980, another new owner, Swallow Hotels, spent £350,000 on another refurbishment, and during the 1990s more - very comfortable - bedrooms were added as part of the Cornmill development.

In March 1999, the then owner of the King's Head, Chasley Hotels, went into receivership under Deloitte and Touche of London. The receivers say the hotel is trading profitably and will go up for sale "in due course".

If you have any memories of the King's Head with its main entrance on Prebend Row, please write to Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF, or e-mail chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk, or phone (01325) 505062.

Pictures courtesy of Darlington Centre for Local Studies.

Architect who made his mark on a town

GEORGE Gordon Hoskins first came to Darlington when he was 24 years old, but probably no man has made a more visible mark on the town.

He arrived in 1861 to act as clerk of works on the construction of a mansion at Hurworth called Pilmore Hall.

Pilmore Hall is now known as Rockliffe Park and is the home of Middlesbrough Football Club, but back then it was the home of a banker, Alfred Backhouse.

A year or so later, Backhouse asked the architect responsible for Pilmore, Alfred Waterhouse, to build a splendid bank on High Row. Hoskins, who was Waterhouse's pupil, was also clerk of works on the bank - today occupied by Barclay's - and found himself established in the town.

His first solo project was the Temperance Hall, near the fish and chip shop in Hurworth, which he worked on in 1864.

He then built more banks for Backhouses: Sunderland (1868), Bishop Auckland (1870), Middlesbrough (1875), Thirsk (1877) and Barnard Castle (1878).

Although he was an Anglican, the Quaker families of the area adopted him and his Gothic style as their own.

He built Elm Ridge in 1867, the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Vane Terrace in 1875, the Edward Pease Free Library in Crown Street in 1884, the Technical College in Northgate in 1896 and the New Hippodrome (Civic Theatre) in Parkgate in 1906.

Smaller, but still standing projects included Rise Carr Primary School (1868) and the splendid North of England School Furnishing Company shop (1897) on the corner of Blackwellgate and Skinnergate.

His masterpiece is generally believed to be Middlesbrough Town Hall, which he built in 1882 and which is now occupied by Ray Mallon.

In Darlington, there can be no finer example of his work than the King's Head Hotel of 1893.

Hoskins lived in Thornbeck Hill, on Carmel Road North.

He was a magistrate and a Conservative councillor. He died in 1911.