Description

HARWICH

TM2532NE THE QUAY
609-1/1/109 (South East side)
20/06/72 Quayside Court, including lamp
standards flanking entrance
(Formerly Listed as:
NEW QUAY
The Town Hall)

GV II

Formerly known as: Great Eastern Hotel THE QUAY.
Railway hotel, later municipal offices and public conveniences
(to NE), now flats and lamp standards. 1864. Built by Thomas
Allom. Yellow Gault brick and render with stone dressings and
low pitched Welsh slate roofs. Of 4 storeys and basements with
large relatively plain rear blocks.
EXTERIOR: 9-window range on NW front arranged as 3:3:3 with
central 3-window range breaking slightly forward. One window
range on NE and SW corner which are splayed and slightly
project. 3-window range fronting Eastgate Street and one
window range at NE return flank.
Main elevation has central dentilled pediment with clock face
in laurel wreath and adorned sea monsters with lions' heads.
Attic storey of pedimented Roman cement aedicules with
crayfish flanking consoles. All windows are plain double-hung
sash windows with, in attic, single central glazing bars and
semicircular heads. Heavy console supported cornice below
attic level with frieze of floral paterae. Brickwork at
corners and central projection treated as rusticated bands
with courses of nailhead moulded bricks.
The second-floor windows have framing pilasters with
Corinthianesque capitals, some with scrollwork aprons and
others with stone balconies now without balustrades. On the
first floor the capitals have dolphin volutes with shell
inserts and a continuous stone balcony with decorative
wrought-iron handrail is supported on big stone brackets. At
the corners the balcony has stone balustrade with semicircular
projecting bays.
Ground floor has projecting porch with stone balustrade with
projecting cornice and emphatic swags. Semicircular-headed
moulded and rusticated entrance arch with Gothick nook shafts
and corner piers. This is fronted by stone plinths with 2 tall
cast-iron lamp standards. Either side, the ground-floor
elevation has 8 semicircular arch-headed windows with
continuous sills and Gothick nook shafts. Above this is a
series of 10 circular recesses with busts of historical
personages. Heavy bulbous stone plinth and flight of steps at
NE corner.
A short screen wall return on NE (now public lavatories) has
stone moulded cornice, 3 moulded semicircular arches with
keystones on rusticated brick pilasters. The arch spandrels
have shell motif and 2 projecting black disc-like ornaments
over base decorative surrounds.
INTERIOR: inside the porch lobby intrudes into the entrance
hall which has screen of 2 squat Corinthianesque columns with
wall respond pilasters. To the rear is a wide opening (now
partly blocked by lift) to well staircase, with heavy soffit
brackets. Stairs have cantilevered stone steps and iron loop
balusters. At each landing there is a tripartite double-hung
sash window with etched glass, that to the 3rd landing with
semicircular head. A large ground-floor room to the NE has 4
free-standing fluted Corinthianesque columns and a large
semicircular recess with arcaded glazed openings to ambulatory
passage behind.

Listing NGR: TM2596532811

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26483104

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

• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)