The George Hotel, Crawley
Encyclopedia
The George Hotel, also known as The George Inn and now marketed as the Ramada Crawley Gatwick, is a hotel and former coaching inn
on the High Street in Crawley
, a town and borough
in West Sussex
, England.
The present structure is made up of disparate parts of various dates: the inn expanded to take in adjacent buildings as its success grew in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is known that a building called The George has existed on the site since the 16th century or earlier, and many sources date the core of the existing inn to 1615.
The George was one of England's most famous and successful coaching inns, and the most important in Sussex, because of its location halfway between the capital city, London, and the fashionable seaside resort of Brighton
. It has been associated with royalty, bareknuckle prizefighting
, smuggling
and public hangings
among other things, and has been the subject of novels and paintings. "Crawley's most celebrated building" has been listed at Grade II* by English Heritage
for its architectural and historical importance.
in 1086, no manor
or village of Crawley existed, but the thickly forested area was gradually being cleared and settled. The land on which the village of Crawley developed—a sloping site with higher land to the south, at the point where the Low Weald
rises to become the High Weald—was probably owned by William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey
as part of one of the manors to the south.
During the Norman era
in the late 11th and 12th centuries, a nucleated village began to appear, prompted by the development of a north–south "High Street" forming part of a longer route from the capital city, London, to the port of Shoreham
on the English Channel
coast. This replaced an earlier northeast–southwest route linking local farms to the older settlement of West Green, about 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) west of Crawley, because a north–south route could take advantage of an area of drier, harder land formed by an outcrop of sandstone
from the Hastings Beds which jutted into the sticky, waterlogged Weald Clay which predominated around West Green and Crawley.
The main road quickly became established, and Crawley was a natural stopping place almost exactly halfway between the coast and London. Its development into an urban area was assured when King John
granted a charter for a market in 1202. St John the Baptist's Church
was founded a few decades later, a manor house
was built in the late 14th or early 15th century, and the local iron industry brought further prosperity. Buildings appeared on both sides of the High Street, which widened significantly as it passed the manor house and church, and the market's position on a long-distance through road enabled it to thrive.
The first mention of the George came in 1579, when landowner Richard Covert died and passed on an area of land (a tenement
) to his son. This necessitated a payment to the Lord of the Manor
. The tenement bore the name of The George, and was situated in a valuable position: in the centre of Crawley, on the west side of the High Street (and just inside the parish
of Ifield, a nearby village; the boundary between Ifield and Crawley parishes ran along the middle of the High Street). The building on the land was almost certainly an inn at that time, and many sources assert that its oldest parts date from about 1450. Its centre section, an open hall-house
of a type common in the area, may be even older: possibly late 14th-century.
An early remodelling came in 1615, when a timber-framed
extension was built on the south side, a new jettied
cross-wing was added at the front and a stone fireplace was installed. This bears the date 1615 (although this may have been carved later), and has carvings and arches. An inventory dated 1689, carried out when the owner died, revealed that the George Hotel had 15 bedrooms, two parlour
s, a kitchen, a bakery, a small brewery, stables, a barn, a back yard and a cellar. Meanwhile, a gallows
was erected outside the hotel, partly spanning the High Street; one end was attached to the top floor of the building. For a time it was used for public hanging
s; prisoners waiting to be executed would be held in a cell at the Brewery Shades
inn, which stood opposite the George Hotel and was connected to it by underground passages.
Until the 18th century, the narrow, waterlogged road northwards from Crawley towards Reigate
and London could only be used by horses, and even then only with difficulty; it was impassable for carriages, carts and other wheeled vehicles. Trade was being affected, demand for travel between Crawley and London was growing (by the late 17th century it was one of several towns in Sussex to be served by scheduled packhorse-drawn goods wagons to and from the capital), and the nearby market town
s of Horsham
and East Grinstead
threatened to overtake Crawley in importance. (Like Crawley, they each had two licensed taverns in 1636, when an inventory of Sussex's 61 licensed premises was drawn up.) In 1696, one of England's first turnpike
Acts
was passed, which allowed tolls to be collected to pay for repairs and improvement. A tollgate was built at the north end of Crawley; this gave its name to the present neighbourhood of Northgate. The growth of Brighton
as a fashionable seaside resort from the mid-18th century was also invaluable to Crawley's prosperity: it lay directly south of Crawley, and replaced Shoreham as the main focus of north–south traffic. In 1770, the section between Lowfield Heath
(north of Crawley) and Brighton was turnpiked, and for the first time the full length of the London–Brighton road was properly constructed and maintained. The journey by horse and carriage now took about eight hours, and Crawley was perfectly placed to become a daytime or overnight stopping point. Within a few years, about 60 coaches
were making the journey every day, and The George—as the town's largest and best-equipped hotel—became "the recognised halfway house between London and Brighton".
Artist Thomas Rowlandson
's aquatint
of 1789, An Excursion to Brighthelmstone in 1789 (the title uses Brighton's original name), shows the George Hotel prominently. It is the earliest artistic depiction of Crawley, and shows a riotous horse auction underneath the original gallows. The horses were reputedly seized from smugglers
apprehended in the area, which was notorious for that activity at the time. Bareknuckle prizefighting
was also a major local attraction from which the George benefited: nearby Crawley Down
and Copthorne
were "the most renowned battlefields in the south of England", and the George itself became "the hub of the pugilistic universe". Tens of thousands of people of all classes—including members of the Royal Family (such as the Prince Regent
), statesmen
and famous playwrights
—would visit Crawley Down or Copthorne Common to watch and bet on extremely violent contests which could last for hours; the George was invariably used as the base from which to visit these illegal bouts. Other famous visitors of this era included Lord Nelson
—whose sister lived in the nearby village of Handcross
— Queen Victoria
, who on one occasion was stranded overnight when her carriage broke down, and the Prince Regent, whose patronage of Brighton and regular travelling of the London–Brighton road indirectly brought about the upturn in fortunes experienced by Crawley in general, and the George Hotel in particular, during the 18th century. In this era, it was one of Britain's best-known and most important coaching inn
s, and it held "the premier position" among Sussex's many such establishments.
Also by this time, the former gallows had been converted into an inn sign which soon became a landmark, and some structural and exterior alterations were made—the first of many over the subsequent years. The earliest known photograph of the George, dated 1867, shows a dilapidated building of several uncoordinated parts: it had expanded over the years to take in buildings on each side of the original medieval inn, and it was considered a purely functional building with no obvious architectural merit. By this time, the coaching era was in terminal decline because of the increasing popularity of rail travel; a line was opened between London and Brighton
in 1841, with a station at Three Bridges
just east of Crawley, and the town centre received its own branch line
and station
in 1848. Despite this, Crawley High Street remained busy as the town continued to grow, and the George underwent more renovation and was extended further. In particular, an old (possibly 18th-century) free-standing building which stood in the middle of the wide High Street, and which was once used as a candle factory, was acquired by the George's owners and became an annex. It was this building, rather than the main part of the hotel, which accommodated Queen Victoria when she was forced to stay overnight. Cycling for leisure purposes became a fad in the late 19th century, and the London–Brighton road was a popular route; the George became a regular stopping point for groups of cyclists.
Major changes took place in the 1930s. The annex was knocked down in 1933, and the site in the middle of the High Street was converted into a bus stop and a car park for the hotel (itself removed since the street's pedestrianisation in the early 21st century). The gallows sign was replaced with a replica, and two smaller facsimiles were added in the car park, which was also flanked by four medieval-style lanterns. Meanwhile, wide-ranging renovations to the hotel itself made the building look even older than it did before; all structural changes took its medieval character into account and were made in a complementary style, making all the disparate parts of the hotel "look an integrated whole".
Soon after World War II, Crawley was designated as England's second New Town
by the Labour
government of Clement Attlee
, who passed the New Towns Act 1946
. Housing, industry and offices developed rapidly around the core of the old town; despite early fears that historic buildings (including the George Hotel) would have to be destroyed, most of the historic High Street was preserved. The growth of Gatwick Airport
, on the northern edge of the town, from a little-used airstrip into an international airport, provided further impetus, and by the start of the 21st century Crawley had become a regional centre with 100,000 people—compared to a population of about 7,000 before World War II. Demand for hotel space grew continuously, and the George was extended to the rear and began marketing itself as the "Gatwick George Hotel".
The George Hotel was listed at Grade II* by English Heritage
on 21 June 1948; this defines it as a "particularly important building of more than special interest" and of national importance. As of February 2011, it was one of 12 Grade II* structures, and 100 listed buildings and structures of all grades, in the Borough of Crawley. Since the New Town
was established, Crawley has been split into 13 neighbourhoods, and all listed buildings in the borough are described on the council's schedule of listed buildings as being in one of these neighbourhoods; the George Hotel is classed as being in West Green, and is one of six listed buildings in that neighbourhood.
. This section has a much lower roofline than the rest of the hotel, although the whole building is two-storey. The northern section are believed to have been a two-bay open hall-house
with a parlour wing; their thick wooden roof beams (in the form of crown posts
), blackened by smoke, and timber-framed
walls survive. The centre section was the south wing of the original building; it would have been the service area to the hall-house, with kitchen facilities and similar, and formed a cross-wing with large joist
s and a cellar. The rear wall has braces which suggest the former existence of a rear entrance leading to the stables behind. A stone fireplace inside may be as old as the date carved on it—1615—but the inscription is believed to be more recent.
None of the exterior is original, although parts of the tiled roof may be. It is laid with slabs of Horsham stone—a local material commonly used on old roofs in the Crawley area. The façade is mostly tile-hung to the first floor with timber framing below. The entrance is gable
d and has a canted
bay window
of 18th-century origin. The southern part of the façade is stucco
ed and topped by a parapet
. It is probably an 18th-century refacing of an older building (or buildings) incorporated into the hotel as it grew.
buffet restaurant and a Roman Empire
-themed cocktail bar.
, the first editor of the satirical magazine Punch, lived on the High Street in Crawley from 1858 until his death in 1870. He became an important figure in Crawley society, and was generous with his time and money: for example, in 1863, he organised and paid for festivities at the George Hotel and the nearby White Hart Inn
to celebrate the wedding of Edward, Prince of Wales
and Princess Alexandra of Denmark
. A blue plaque
outside the George commemorates his time in the town.
The hotel was central to the plot of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
's mystery novel Rodney Stone
, written in 1896. Sussex's bareknuckle prizefighting tradition was a central theme, and the novel described at length the build-up to a fight involving the eponymous narrator's friend Boy Jim, including the moment they arrived at "the high front door of the old George Inn, glowing from every door and pane and crevice, in honour of the noble company who were to sleep within that night". Jem Belcher
, one of several real bareknuckle fighters who featured in fictionalised form in the novel, trained Boy Jim at the hotel.
John George Haigh
, a notorious serial killer in the 1940s known for his "acid bath" murders, stayed at the hotel on numerous occasions, and dined there on the day he killed one of his victims.
Coaching inn
In Europe, from approximately the mid-17th century for a period of about 200 years, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital part of the inland transport infrastructure, as an inn serving coach travelers...
on the High Street in Crawley
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...
, a town and borough
Borough status in the United Kingdom
Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district...
in West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, England.
The present structure is made up of disparate parts of various dates: the inn expanded to take in adjacent buildings as its success grew in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is known that a building called The George has existed on the site since the 16th century or earlier, and many sources date the core of the existing inn to 1615.
The George was one of England's most famous and successful coaching inns, and the most important in Sussex, because of its location halfway between the capital city, London, and the fashionable seaside resort of Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
. It has been associated with royalty, bareknuckle prizefighting
Bare-knuckle boxing
Bare-knuckle boxing is the original form of boxing, closely related to ancient combat sports...
, smuggling
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
and public hangings
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom
Capital punishment in the United Kingdom was used from the creation of the state in 1707 until the practice was abolished in the 20th century. The last executions in the United Kingdom, by hanging, took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder...
among other things, and has been the subject of novels and paintings. "Crawley's most celebrated building" has been listed at Grade II* by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
for its architectural and historical importance.
History
At the time of the Domesday surveyDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
in 1086, no manor
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
or village of Crawley existed, but the thickly forested area was gradually being cleared and settled. The land on which the village of Crawley developed—a sloping site with higher land to the south, at the point where the Low Weald
Weald
The Weald is the name given to an area in South East England situated between the parallel chalk escarpments of the North and the South Downs. It should be regarded as three separate parts: the sandstone "High Weald" in the centre; the clay "Low Weald" periphery; and the Greensand Ridge which...
rises to become the High Weald—was probably owned by William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey
William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey
William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, Seigneur de Varennes is one of the very few proven Companions of William the Conqueror known to have fought at the Battle of Hastings in 1066...
as part of one of the manors to the south.
During the Norman era
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
in the late 11th and 12th centuries, a nucleated village began to appear, prompted by the development of a north–south "High Street" forming part of a longer route from the capital city, London, to the port of Shoreham
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea is a small town, port and seaside resort in West Sussex, England. Shoreham-by-Sea railway station is located less than a mile from the town centre and London Gatwick Airport is away...
on the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
coast. This replaced an earlier northeast–southwest route linking local farms to the older settlement of West Green, about 0.5 mile (0.80467 km) west of Crawley, because a north–south route could take advantage of an area of drier, harder land formed by an outcrop of sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
from the Hastings Beds which jutted into the sticky, waterlogged Weald Clay which predominated around West Green and Crawley.
The main road quickly became established, and Crawley was a natural stopping place almost exactly halfway between the coast and London. Its development into an urban area was assured when King John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
granted a charter for a market in 1202. St John the Baptist's Church
St John the Baptist's Church, Crawley
St John the Baptist's Church is an Anglican church in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is the parish church of Crawley, and is the oldest building in the town centre, dating from the 13th century—although many alterations have been made since, and only one wall remains of...
was founded a few decades later, a manor house
Tree House, Crawley
Tree House, also known as The Tree, is a mediaeval timber-framed house on the High Street in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is the original manor house of Crawley, and was built in the early 15th century and rebuilt in the mid-16th century. It now has a modern exterior...
was built in the late 14th or early 15th century, and the local iron industry brought further prosperity. Buildings appeared on both sides of the High Street, which widened significantly as it passed the manor house and church, and the market's position on a long-distance through road enabled it to thrive.
The first mention of the George came in 1579, when landowner Richard Covert died and passed on an area of land (a tenement
Tenement (law)
A tenement , in law, is anything that is held, rather than owned. This usage is a holdover from feudalism, which still forms the basis of all real-estate law in the English-speaking world, in which the monarch alone owned the allodial title to all the land within his kingdom.Under feudalism, land...
) to his son. This necessitated a payment to the Lord of the Manor
Lord of the Manor
The Lordship of a Manor is recognised today in England and Wales as a form of property and one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined and may be held in moieties...
. The tenement bore the name of The George, and was situated in a valuable position: in the centre of Crawley, on the west side of the High Street (and just inside the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of Ifield, a nearby village; the boundary between Ifield and Crawley parishes ran along the middle of the High Street). The building on the land was almost certainly an inn at that time, and many sources assert that its oldest parts date from about 1450. Its centre section, an open hall-house
Wealden hall house
The Wealden hall house is a type of vernacular medieval timber-framed yeoman's house traditional in the south east of England. It is most common in Kent and the east of Sussex but has also been built elsewhere...
of a type common in the area, may be even older: possibly late 14th-century.
An early remodelling came in 1615, when a timber-framed
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
extension was built on the south side, a new jettied
Jettying
Jettying is a building technique used in medieval timber frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the available space in the building without obstructing the street...
cross-wing was added at the front and a stone fireplace was installed. This bears the date 1615 (although this may have been carved later), and has carvings and arches. An inventory dated 1689, carried out when the owner died, revealed that the George Hotel had 15 bedrooms, two parlour
Parlour
Parlour , from the French word parloir, from parler , denotes an "audience chamber". In parts of the United Kingdom and the United States, parlours are common names for certain types of food service houses, restaurants or special service areas, such as tattoo parlors...
s, a kitchen, a bakery, a small brewery, stables, a barn, a back yard and a cellar. Meanwhile, a gallows
Gallows
A gallows is a frame, typically wooden, used for execution by hanging, or by means to torture before execution, as was used when being hanged, drawn and quartered...
was erected outside the hotel, partly spanning the High Street; one end was attached to the top floor of the building. For a time it was used for public hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
s; prisoners waiting to be executed would be held in a cell at the Brewery Shades
Brewery Shades
The Brewery Shades is a public house on the High Street in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. The building, which stands on a corner site at the point where the town's ancient High Street meets the commercial developments of the postwar New Town, has been altered and extended...
inn, which stood opposite the George Hotel and was connected to it by underground passages.
Until the 18th century, the narrow, waterlogged road northwards from Crawley towards Reigate
Reigate
Reigate is a historic market town in Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs, and in the London commuter belt. It is one of the main constituents of the Borough of Reigate and Banstead...
and London could only be used by horses, and even then only with difficulty; it was impassable for carriages, carts and other wheeled vehicles. Trade was being affected, demand for travel between Crawley and London was growing (by the late 17th century it was one of several towns in Sussex to be served by scheduled packhorse-drawn goods wagons to and from the capital), and the nearby market town
Market town
Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...
s of Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...
and East Grinstead
East Grinstead
East Grinstead is a town and civil parish in the northeastern corner of Mid Sussex, West Sussex in England near the East Sussex, Surrey, and Kent borders. It lies south of London, north northeast of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester...
threatened to overtake Crawley in importance. (Like Crawley, they each had two licensed taverns in 1636, when an inventory of Sussex's 61 licensed premises was drawn up.) In 1696, one of England's first turnpike
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
Acts
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
was passed, which allowed tolls to be collected to pay for repairs and improvement. A tollgate was built at the north end of Crawley; this gave its name to the present neighbourhood of Northgate. The growth of Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
as a fashionable seaside resort from the mid-18th century was also invaluable to Crawley's prosperity: it lay directly south of Crawley, and replaced Shoreham as the main focus of north–south traffic. In 1770, the section between Lowfield Heath
Lowfield Heath
Lowfield Heath is a former village within the boundaries of the Borough of Crawley, a local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. Situated on the main London to Brighton road approximately south of London and north of Crawley, it was gradually rendered uninhabitable by...
(north of Crawley) and Brighton was turnpiked, and for the first time the full length of the London–Brighton road was properly constructed and maintained. The journey by horse and carriage now took about eight hours, and Crawley was perfectly placed to become a daytime or overnight stopping point. Within a few years, about 60 coaches
Stagecoach
A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...
were making the journey every day, and The George—as the town's largest and best-equipped hotel—became "the recognised halfway house between London and Brighton".
Artist Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson
Thomas Rowlandson was an English artist and caricaturist.- Biography :Rowlandson was born in Old Jewry, in the City of London. He was the son of a tradesman or city merchant. On leaving school he became a student at the Royal Academy...
's aquatint
Aquatint
Aquatint is an intaglio printmaking technique, a variant of etching.Intaglio printmaking makes marks on the matrix that are capable of holding ink. The inked plate is passed through a printing press together with a sheet of paper, resulting in a transfer of the ink to the paper...
of 1789, An Excursion to Brighthelmstone in 1789 (the title uses Brighton's original name), shows the George Hotel prominently. It is the earliest artistic depiction of Crawley, and shows a riotous horse auction underneath the original gallows. The horses were reputedly seized from smugglers
Smuggling
Smuggling is the clandestine transportation of goods or persons, such as out of a building, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations.There are various motivations to smuggle...
apprehended in the area, which was notorious for that activity at the time. Bareknuckle prizefighting
Bare-knuckle boxing
Bare-knuckle boxing is the original form of boxing, closely related to ancient combat sports...
was also a major local attraction from which the George benefited: nearby Crawley Down
Crawley Down
Crawley Down is a village in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. There is one church, one school, and a number of social groups. It lies seven miles from Gatwick Airport. Nearest railway stations are Three Bridges and East Grinstead...
and Copthorne
Copthorne, West Sussex
Copthorne is a village in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. It lies close to Gatwick Airport, south of London, north of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Crawley to the southwest and East Grinstead to the east...
were "the most renowned battlefields in the south of England", and the George itself became "the hub of the pugilistic universe". Tens of thousands of people of all classes—including members of the Royal Family (such as the Prince Regent
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
), statesmen
Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...
and famous playwrights
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Irish-born playwright and poet and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. For thirty-two years he was also a Whig Member of the British House of Commons for Stafford , Westminster and Ilchester...
—would visit Crawley Down or Copthorne Common to watch and bet on extremely violent contests which could last for hours; the George was invariably used as the base from which to visit these illegal bouts. Other famous visitors of this era included Lord Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB was a flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of...
—whose sister lived in the nearby village of Handcross
Handcross
Handcross is a village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A23 road 4.2 miles south of Crawley.Nymans Garden, of parklands run by the National Trust, is near to Handcross, as are of woodland and water gardens at High Beeches Garden.Handcross has two public houses,...
— Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
, who on one occasion was stranded overnight when her carriage broke down, and the Prince Regent, whose patronage of Brighton and regular travelling of the London–Brighton road indirectly brought about the upturn in fortunes experienced by Crawley in general, and the George Hotel in particular, during the 18th century. In this era, it was one of Britain's best-known and most important coaching inn
Coaching inn
In Europe, from approximately the mid-17th century for a period of about 200 years, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital part of the inland transport infrastructure, as an inn serving coach travelers...
s, and it held "the premier position" among Sussex's many such establishments.
Also by this time, the former gallows had been converted into an inn sign which soon became a landmark, and some structural and exterior alterations were made—the first of many over the subsequent years. The earliest known photograph of the George, dated 1867, shows a dilapidated building of several uncoordinated parts: it had expanded over the years to take in buildings on each side of the original medieval inn, and it was considered a purely functional building with no obvious architectural merit. By this time, the coaching era was in terminal decline because of the increasing popularity of rail travel; a line was opened between London and Brighton
Brighton Main Line
The Brighton Main Line is a British railway line from London Victoria and London Bridge to Brighton. It is about 50 miles long, and is electrified throughout. Trains are operated by Southern, First Capital Connect, and Gatwick Express, now part of Southern.-Original proposals:There were no fewer...
in 1841, with a station at Three Bridges
Three Bridges
Three Bridges is a neighbourhood within the town of Crawley, in the county of West Sussex in England.-History:Three Bridges was a tiny hamlet, which first began to grow with the coming of the London and Brighton Railway in 1841...
just east of Crawley, and the town centre received its own branch line
Arun Valley Line
The Arun Valley Line, also known as the Mid Sussex Line, is part of the Southern-operated railway services. For the initial part of the route trains follow the Brighton Main Line, and at a junction south of Three Bridges the route turns westwards...
and station
Crawley railway station
Crawley railway station is a railway station serving the town of Crawley in West Sussex. The station is 47 km south of London Victoria and is owned and operated by Southern...
in 1848. Despite this, Crawley High Street remained busy as the town continued to grow, and the George underwent more renovation and was extended further. In particular, an old (possibly 18th-century) free-standing building which stood in the middle of the wide High Street, and which was once used as a candle factory, was acquired by the George's owners and became an annex. It was this building, rather than the main part of the hotel, which accommodated Queen Victoria when she was forced to stay overnight. Cycling for leisure purposes became a fad in the late 19th century, and the London–Brighton road was a popular route; the George became a regular stopping point for groups of cyclists.
Major changes took place in the 1930s. The annex was knocked down in 1933, and the site in the middle of the High Street was converted into a bus stop and a car park for the hotel (itself removed since the street's pedestrianisation in the early 21st century). The gallows sign was replaced with a replica, and two smaller facsimiles were added in the car park, which was also flanked by four medieval-style lanterns. Meanwhile, wide-ranging renovations to the hotel itself made the building look even older than it did before; all structural changes took its medieval character into account and were made in a complementary style, making all the disparate parts of the hotel "look an integrated whole".
Soon after World War II, Crawley was designated as England's second New Town
New towns in the United Kingdom
Below is a list of some of the new towns in the United Kingdom created under the various New Town Acts of the 20th century. Some earlier towns were developed as Garden Cities or overspill estates early in the twentieth century. The New Towns proper were planned to disperse population following the...
by the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government of Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
, who passed the New Towns Act 1946
New Towns Act 1946
The New Towns Act 1946 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed the government to designate areas as new towns, and passing development control functions to a Development Corporation. Several new towns were created in the years following its passing...
. Housing, industry and offices developed rapidly around the core of the old town; despite early fears that historic buildings (including the George Hotel) would have to be destroyed, most of the historic High Street was preserved. The growth of Gatwick Airport
London Gatwick Airport
Gatwick Airport is located 3.1 miles north of the centre of Crawley, West Sussex, and south of Central London. Previously known as London Gatwick,In 2010, the name changed from London Gatwick Airport to Gatwick Airport...
, on the northern edge of the town, from a little-used airstrip into an international airport, provided further impetus, and by the start of the 21st century Crawley had become a regional centre with 100,000 people—compared to a population of about 7,000 before World War II. Demand for hotel space grew continuously, and the George was extended to the rear and began marketing itself as the "Gatwick George Hotel".
The George Hotel was listed at Grade II* by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
on 21 June 1948; this defines it as a "particularly important building of more than special interest" and of national importance. As of February 2011, it was one of 12 Grade II* structures, and 100 listed buildings and structures of all grades, in the Borough of Crawley. Since the New Town
New towns in the United Kingdom
Below is a list of some of the new towns in the United Kingdom created under the various New Town Acts of the 20th century. Some earlier towns were developed as Garden Cities or overspill estates early in the twentieth century. The New Towns proper were planned to disperse population following the...
was established, Crawley has been split into 13 neighbourhoods, and all listed buildings in the borough are described on the council's schedule of listed buildings as being in one of these neighbourhoods; the George Hotel is classed as being in West Green, and is one of six listed buildings in that neighbourhood.
Architecture
The George Hotel has three principal sections, facing east and running from south to north parallel with Crawley High Street. Despite uncertainty over its early history, the building is generally agreed to have 15th-century origins, which are most evident in the northernmost bayBay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
. This section has a much lower roofline than the rest of the hotel, although the whole building is two-storey. The northern section are believed to have been a two-bay open hall-house
Wealden hall house
The Wealden hall house is a type of vernacular medieval timber-framed yeoman's house traditional in the south east of England. It is most common in Kent and the east of Sussex but has also been built elsewhere...
with a parlour wing; their thick wooden roof beams (in the form of crown posts
King post
A king post is a central vertical supporting post used in architectural, bridge, or aircraft design applications.-Architecture:...
), blackened by smoke, and timber-framed
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
walls survive. The centre section was the south wing of the original building; it would have been the service area to the hall-house, with kitchen facilities and similar, and formed a cross-wing with large joist
Joist
A joist, in architecture and engineering, is one of the horizontal supporting members that run from wall to wall, wall to beam, or beam to beam to support a ceiling, roof, or floor. It may be made of wood, steel, or concrete. Typically, a beam is bigger than, and is thus distinguished from, a joist...
s and a cellar. The rear wall has braces which suggest the former existence of a rear entrance leading to the stables behind. A stone fireplace inside may be as old as the date carved on it—1615—but the inscription is believed to be more recent.
None of the exterior is original, although parts of the tiled roof may be. It is laid with slabs of Horsham stone—a local material commonly used on old roofs in the Crawley area. The façade is mostly tile-hung to the first floor with timber framing below. The entrance is gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d and has a canted
Cant (architecture)
Cant is the architectural term describing part, or segment, of a facade which is at an angle to another part of the same facade. The angle breaking the facade is less than a right angle thus enabling a canted facade to be viewed as, and remain, one composition.Canted facades are a typical of, but...
bay window
Bay window
A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room, either square or polygonal in plan. The angles most commonly used on the inside corners of the bay are 90, 135 and 150 degrees. Bay windows are often associated with Victorian architecture...
of 18th-century origin. The southern part of the façade is stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
ed and topped by a parapet
Parapet
A parapet is a wall-like barrier at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony or other structure. Where extending above a roof, it may simply be the portion of an exterior wall that continues above the line of the roof surface, or may be a continuation of a vertical feature beneath the roof such as a...
. It is probably an 18th-century refacing of an older building (or buildings) incorporated into the hotel as it grew.
Rooms and facilities
The hotel has 84 rooms, including singles, doubles, twin rooms, family rooms and four-bed rooms. There are also six meeting rooms with a capacity of up to 150, which are regularly used for conferences, weddings, exhibitions, seminars and training sessions. There is also a ChineseChinese cuisine
Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...
buffet restaurant and a Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
-themed cocktail bar.
Haunting
The hotel is reputedly haunted by the ghost of a nightwatchman, Mark Hurston (or Hewton), who died by drinking poisoned wine—either planted to trap a recurring intruder to the inn, or adulterated by a guest angered at being woken by him. It has been reported that a broom cupboard is often found open after being locked, strange figures have been seen, and electric lights have turned on and off.Notable associations
Mark LemonMark Lemon
Mark Lemon was founding editor of both Punch and The Field.-Biography:Lemon was born in London on the 30 November 1809. He was the son of Martin Lemon, a hop merchant, and Alice Collis. His parents married on 26 December 1808 at St Mary, Marylebone, London...
, the first editor of the satirical magazine Punch, lived on the High Street in Crawley from 1858 until his death in 1870. He became an important figure in Crawley society, and was generous with his time and money: for example, in 1863, he organised and paid for festivities at the George Hotel and the nearby White Hart Inn
White Hart Inn, Crawley
The White Hart Inn, also known as the White Hart Hotel, is a coaching inn on the High Street in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. Built in the late 18th century to replace an older inn also under the sign of the White Hart, it also served as Crawley's main post office for most of...
to celebrate the wedding of Edward, Prince of Wales
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
and Princess Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark
Alexandra of Denmark was the wife of Edward VII of the United Kingdom...
. A blue plaque
Blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person or event, serving as a historical marker....
outside the George commemorates his time in the town.
The hotel was central to the plot of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
's mystery novel Rodney Stone
Rodney Stone
Rodney Stone is a Gothic mystery and boxing novel by Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle first published in 1896.The eponymous narrator is a Sussex country boy who is taken to London by his uncle Sir Charles Tregellis, a highly respected gentleman and arbiter of fashion who is on familiar terms...
, written in 1896. Sussex's bareknuckle prizefighting tradition was a central theme, and the novel described at length the build-up to a fight involving the eponymous narrator's friend Boy Jim, including the moment they arrived at "the high front door of the old George Inn, glowing from every door and pane and crevice, in honour of the noble company who were to sleep within that night". Jem Belcher
Jem Belcher
Jem Belcher was an English bare-knuckle boxer and Champion of All England 1800-1805.Born in Bristol, Belcher beat Paddington Tom Jones in April 1799 in the Middleweight Championship of England. He drew with champion Jack Bartholomew in a 51-round bout in 1799, and won the rematch in the...
, one of several real bareknuckle fighters who featured in fictionalised form in the novel, trained Boy Jim at the hotel.
John George Haigh
John George Haigh
John George Haigh , commonly known as the "Acid Bath Murderer" , was an English serial killer during the 1940s. He was convicted of the murders of six people, although he claimed to have killed nine...
, a notorious serial killer in the 1940s known for his "acid bath" murders, stayed at the hotel on numerous occasions, and dined there on the day he killed one of his victims.