White Hart Inn, Crawley

White Hart Inn
The inn from the southwest
Location	65 High Street, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 1BQ, England
Coordinates	51°06′54″N 0°11′24″W / 51.1151°N 0.1899°W / 51.1151; -0.1899
Built	1770
Architectural style(s)	Timber-framed
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	No 65 High Street (White Hart Hotel)
Designated	23 February 1983
Reference no.	1298876
Location of White Hart Inn in Crawley

The White Hart Inn, also known as the White Hart Hotel, is a

Crawley developed slowly as a Wealden market town and ironmaking centre, focused on its north–south High Street, from the 13th century onwards.^[3][4] This street formed part of the main road from the capital city, London, to the increasingly fashionable seaside resort of Brighton. After the road was turnpiked in stages between the late 17th century and the mid-18th century,^[5][6] Crawley's position almost exactly halfway between the two allowed it to develop a prominent new role as a convenient stop for stagecoach passengers and drivers.^[6][7] By the late 18th century, it had become Sussex's main staging-post for journeys to and from London, as the neighbouring towns of Horsham and East Grinstead fell out of favour.^[8]

To fulfil this role, Crawley needed plenty of venues to entertain guests for a few hours or overnight, with rooms to accommodate overnight stops and facilities for changing teams of horses. Several medieval buildings on the High Street, such as the George Hotel, the Ancient Priors and the Old Punch Bowl, met this need to some extent, but none were built for that purpose: all had been adapted from existing structures with different uses. The Ancient Priors was built as a house with a small agricultural plot;^[9] the Old Punch Bowl had been a large farmhouse;^[10] and although the George had always been an inn, it expanded gradually and haphazardly across several neighbouring buildings.^[5] The Ancient Priors in particular was too small to meet the demand for its facilities. In 1753—at which point it was operating under the name The White Hart—it was sold, and soon afterwards became a farm.^[11] The proceeds were used to build a new White Hart Inn. A site 70 yards (64 m) further north^[12] on the High Street was selected; this was large enough to provide both a bigger building and a substantial area at the rear for the stabling of horses.^[13] Most sources agree that the new White Hart Inn opened in 1770,^[13][14] although some identify 1790 as the date.^[15] Architectural studies made in 1995 and 2003 attributed a date of around 1600 to the southern part of the building, suggesting that the inn was built around the core of an older structure.^[1][2]

The inn was immediately successful at meeting the requirements of the greatly increased coaching traffic, which had grown from one daily service in 1756 to five by 1790 and 30 by 1815.

The White Hart Inn was listed at Grade II on 23 February 1983.^[24]

Architecture

The White Hart Inn is a timber-framed building consisting of three bays on a north–south orientation.^[1] The exterior is clad in stuccoed brickwork, the roof is tiled, and there are three brick chimneys.^[1][16][24] The southern section^[2] is the remnants of a timber-framed house dating from about 1600 (original estimates attributed an 18th-century date, in line with the actual opening of the inn).^[24] This had a stair turret at the rear leading into the attic, but only the topmost steps of this structure remain.^[1][2] The attic is still a separate space, now two rooms with one external window under the roof gable at the south end. Later, the building was extended to the rear.^[1] In about 1830, an extension was built to the north; this is of two storeys, like the earlier part, but is slightly taller and has a separate roofline. It is of brick and has no timber-framing.^[24] Similarly, no timber is now visible on the lower storey of the older section of the building.^[1]

References

Notes