Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 29 August 2023 to amend the name and address and reformat the text to current standards.

SO8454NE
620-1/16/128

WORCESTER
CHAPEL WALK
No.19, 'Unicorn' with entrance to Crowngate Centre

(Formerly listed as No.55, 'Unicorn' with entrance to Crowngate Centre, BROAD STREET, previously listed as: BROAD STREET (South side) No.55 (Former Unicorn Hotel (Unicorn Chambers))

05/04/71

GV
II
Hotel, now shops and offices, also forming entrance to Crowngate Centre. c1830 with later additions and alterations including those c1980s. Stucco over brick with concealed roof. Four storeys, seven first floor windows. First, second and third floors have six/six cambered-arched sashes in near-flush frames. Cornice over first floor; second floor band; cornice over second floor; crowning frieze and low, coped parapet. Ground floor has horizontal rustication and central tristyle Doric portico with entablature (occupying former carriage entrance) giving access to shopping centre. To either side a replacement plate-glass shop front.

INTERIOR: in rear part to right of passageway an open newel staircase to full height with rod-on-vase balusters, shaped handrail and carved tread ends. First floor room at front retains two transverse beams with roll-moulding and moulded cornices. Other rooms to first floor retain fluted cornices.

HISTORICAL NOTE: known as The Unicorn Hotel, this was one of the principal coaching inns of Georgian Worcester, others include the former Crown Hotel (Nos 10 and 10A with Crown Passage including Crown Inn) and The Star Hotel, Foregate Street (qqv). The Unicorn Hotel was built over the northern line of Worcester's Saxon town defences, evealed in excavations of 1989. Hughes states that,'by the sixteenth century, Broad Street was second only to High Street in commercial importance. On the direct route through the city from the (Worcester) Bridge (qv), it contained the business premises of a number of important traders and at least two inns'.

All the listed buildings in Broad Street form a significant group: Nos 10, 10A, 11 with the Crown Inn, 12, 18, 19, 29, 32-36 (consecutive), 40, 41, 43-49 (consecutive), 51-63 (consecutive), 69, 70, and Church of All Saints (qqv).

Hughes P: No.57 Broad Street, Worcester: Report for Worcester City Council: 1991.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26317152

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)