Listed Building: No.219 Watling Street West (The Saracens Head Hotel) (1040840)

Hotel and public house, formerly coaching inn. Early C18 with older origins. Coursed squared ironstone, plain-tile roofs, brick ridge stacks. 2 storeys and attic; 7-window range. Central carriage arch with timber lintel and double-leaf panelled doors, that to left with wicket. 15-pane sash windows to left of arch and to right, with stone lintels and keyblocks. Canted bay window between windows to ground floor left, otherwise 12-pane sash windows to ground and first floors with stone lintels and . for round-arched window above arch flanked by niches holding fine lead statuettes of Venus (left ) and Apollo with harp (right), reputed to have come from Easton Neston. Chamfered plinth, storey band and moulded stone eaves. Hipped roof dormers with diamond leaded windows. Single-storey extension to right, probably added as an assembly room. Interior: barrel-vaulted plaster ceiling to dining room. Recommended by Sam Weller in Pickwick Papers as a place where a 'very good littl ' could be got ready in half an hour. (Charles Dickens, 'Pickwick Papers', 1837, Chapter 50, p.544).

Record last edited

Jul 20 2022 4:00PM