The Imperial Hotel

Attached four-bay three-storey hotel, established 1795[?]; extant 1838[?], originally two separate two-bay three-storey townhouses. Reconstructed, 1891-2, producing present composition. Sold, 1902. Renovated, 1995. For sale, 2010. Now disused. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, concrete or rendered coping to gable with rendered chimney stack to apex having "Cyma Recta" or "Cyma Reversa" stringcourse below capping supporting terracotta or yellow terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on boxed rendered eaves retaining cast-iron octagonal or ogee hopper and downpipe. Rendered, ruled and lined walls on moulded cushion course on rendered plinth with diamond pointed panelled rendered piers to ends. Square-headed off-central door opening with cut-limestone threshold, and drag edged rusticated cut-limestone surround centred on panelled keystone below "Cavetto" cornice with fittings now boarded-up. Square-headed window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing one-over-one timber sash windows. Street fronted with concrete footpath to front.

An hotel representing an integral component of the built heritage of Castlebar: meanwhile, aspects of the composition clearly illustrate the near-total reconstruction of the hotel to a design by Henry Doran (b. 1857) of Tavraun House (Western People 20th February 1892, 5). A prolonged period of neglect notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the historic or original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior where contemporary joinery; restrained chimneypieces; and sleek plasterwork refinements, all highlight the artistic potential of an hotel forming part of a neat self-contained group alongside an adjacent block (see 31209083) with the resulting ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in The Mall.