Appraisal

No. 20, Monmouth Street, The Mercer Street Hotel

A substantially scaled, late-19^th/early-20^th-century hotel. Richly modelled, classically detailed, six-storey street elevations faced in Suffolk brick with painted stone dressings (with two additional, dormered storeys set within steep mansard slopes) extending along Monmouth Street and Mercer Street, rising to seven storeys and one additional storey at the splay-corner fronting The Dials. A prominent cornice runs around the building below the fifth floor level windows, supported at the corner by rusticated pilasters rising through the first, second, third and fourth floor storeys. The elevations at ground floor level comprise eleven bays of varying width along Monmouth Street (and seven bays of varying width along Mercer Street), set within a framework of plain stone or render, painted mid-grey, capped by a cornice.

The three northernmost bays on the Monmouth Street together with the building break forward modestly from the eight bays to the south. Each of the openings along each street contains a modern, glazed frontage set within subdivided, traditionally-detailed timber framing, painted appropriately in dark brown. The window joinery of the upper floors, including the dormers, is painted white. The external signing of the hotel is modest and discrete, and is limited to sign written lettering on the plain framework above the window and door bays, and two Union Flags to each side of the corner entrance

The building appears to be in remarkably good condition. Although unlisted, the building is of considerable townscape value, particularly in marking the north-eastern corner of The Dials, contributing positively to the character, appearance and significance of the Seven Dials Conservation Area.

There is only limited scope to enhance the appearance of the building given its present reticent and tasteful state.