Park Road 19, "Clarence Hotel" currently The Park
Road: Park Road, Teddington
Property: ‘The Park’ formerly the Clarence Hotel, Park Road
Listed grade II in 1983 as a building of architectural or historic interest; the listing description is:
‘Mid C19, 2-storey large public house. Nine bays wide (2:5:2). Centre bays stand forward and have higher first floor. Stock brick with stucco dressings. Entablatures at first floor and parapet level. Centre bay door and window openings have elaborately enriched dressings.’
This substantial building dates from 1863 and was built on the site of another pub – the Greyhound Inn – which itself dated from 1730. It was also known as the Clarence Arms Inn and briefly the Guilford Arms, named in both cases after the occupants of the nearby Bushy House. The duke of Clarence was the future King William IV.
The style of the building is distinctly neo-classical French with its imposing first floor and segmental pediments over the windows.
In 1823 the post office was here and letters were dispatched daily at ‘quarter before eight and a quarter before three in the afternoon’
The 1871 census (page ref RG10/866/720/2), 8 years after the hotel was built, gives two brothers - James and Robert Hale - as the hotel keepers at the ages of 28 and 27; they have 5 employees: house keeper, barmaid, cook etc.; they are still running the hotel in 1891 (ref. RG12/617/124/11) with three servants noted, and by then both have families. James has 2 daughters and a son, whilst Robert a daughter; no wives are recorded in the census however. In 1901 (ref. RG13/673/30/1) the hotel was run by a William Wickes - described as 'hotel proprietor' - with his family, and a much larger staff of 10, two of which were foreign-born - from Germany and Austria..'
The English Heritage weblink is at;
http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1357755
This page is part of the Directory of Buildings of Townscape Merit (BTMs) and Listed Buildings in Teddington assembled by the Planning and History Groups of The Teddington Society. Click on any photo for a higher resolution version. Copyright for the material on this page rests with the contributor.