MEM22349 - Alford House Hotel, Alford Terrace, Lynton (Building)

Hotel, in house row. Site lease document in the house dated November 1845. For John Haynes, reputedly as a boarding house. Rendered, slate roof. A symmetrical double-depth block with 4-room plan and central stair. 2 storeys, attic and basement, 3 windows. 3 gabled half-dormers with 4-pane sashes, in architraves, above 2-light margin-pane casements, and a pair of French doors opening to the portico roof, all with architraves . At the ground floor are flat-roofed canted bays with French doors and casements, and central 5-panel door with fanlight in a deep square portico on Doric columns with responds and with a thin 3-part architrave. The stone landing to the portico has a cast-iron grille to the risers as ventilation to the basement, and there is a horizontal cast-iron ventilation grille in front of each of the canted bays. The dormers have barge-boards with drop finials and arch braces, and there is a stack to each gable end. The rear has 2 eaves stacks, and a small 2-light dormer. INTERIOR: the stick baluster stair with open string divides at the landing, which has an arched sash, with tinted and etched glass. The upper stair, through an archway, has a similar balustrade, swept handrail, and turned newels. Cornice mouldings in the ground-floor room to right include Greek key ornament. The basement was not inspected, but formerly connected by an arched tunnel to the doorway in the retaining wall (qv). [1] A lease document states that it was reputedly built as a boarding house in 1845. It has a two-storey, three-bay frontage with barge-boarded half dormers having drop finials and arch braces. There is a combination of French doors, casement and sash windows, some forming canted bays, others with margin glazing bars. An arched landing sash window has tinted and etched glass. The central five-panel door is set in a deep, square portico on Doric columns. There are also many original interior features including a stick baluster stair with swept hand rails and turned newels. [2] The building was visited in April 2012 as part of the rapid condition survey of Exmoor's Listed Buildings 2012-13. It received a BAR score of 6. [3] The building is mentioned in the 2019 Conservation Area Appraisal for Lynton. [4] The building is depicted but not labelled on the 2022 MasterMap data. [5] The building was assessed as part of the 2018-19 rapid condition survey of Exmoor’s Listed Buildings, receiving a BAR score of 5. [6]