32 Devonshire Place,

Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Grade II Listed Building (NHLE: 1149479; 1334958)

Historic Building Recording for Restoration and Refurbishment

OASIS: thejesso1-165 779

A detailed historic building survey was undertaken prior to the refurbishment and conversion of No. 32 Devonshire Place, Harrogate. The site comprised of two Grade II listed buildings and the archaeological recording was a requirement of the Listed Building Consent. The core of the building appears to date from c.1700 and was known as the Salutation, built as a coaching inn with stabling to the rear. The building passed through multiple owners, many of whomwent bankrupt, and by the 1820s was renamed as Gascoigne's Hotel. The name changed again in the 1990s to the County Hotel. It was used as an auction house and for church meetings, and as a venue for the prominent Harrogate Gentleman's Club in the 1860s.

The archaeological analysis of the building has identified that there are over nine distinct phases of development and expansion,involving remodeling the interior layout on numerous occasions, especially of the ground floor.

To the rear of the buildings is a free standing structure known as the 'gin store', believed to have been used as a bonded warehouse for the storage and sale of wines and spirits. The survey has however demonstrated that this building does not appear on historic mapping until after 1862 and thus cannot be the gin store mentioned in the archives dating to 1815. It is instead suggested, that it represents a purpose built billiard room, which was known to have been a particular feature of the hotel at this date, and is thus still of considerable architectural significance.

Scope of work: archive research, measured survey, architectural photography