The Dale Temperance Hotel and Coffee Tavern was built in 1880 by Thomas Bellamy Dale a local manufacturer and philanthropist who was concerned with charitable work and the improvement of living conditions within the town. He was a cousin and partner George Nelson,
Mr. Dale, who was some eight years younger than his partner, and managed the London business of the firm George Nelson, Dale & Co; until the death of Mr. Nelson in the year of 1850, when he found it necessary to take up his residence in Warwick as the head of the firm.
He took an active part in local affairs, and was thrice Mayor of Warwick. Mr. Dale was a philanthropist in every sense of the word, for his name was connected with the principal benevolent institutions of England, of which he was a generous supporter; as a public man he took a very active part in the sanitary improvements of the borough of Warwick, and in the adoption of the Free Library Act. He was a generous supporter of every useful institution in the town, and, though exceedingly charitable, was most unostentatious in all his benefactions.
Mr. Dale died in the year 1890 at the ripe age of eighty-two, deeply lamented by all who knew him.
The Temperance Hotel was designed by architect Frederick Holyoake Moore of Warwick who lived in Northgate Street. Thomas Bellamy Dale, provided a teetotal establishment with entertainment at the hotel and coffee house to encourage men away from the numerous public houses that were universally held responsible for drunkenness and poor health amongst the working classes.
There was bar and coffee room on the ground floor with service rooms at the rear of the building. On the first floor there was a bagatelle with a smoke room to the front, with an extensive committee and club room to the rear of the building . The bedrooms for hotel guests were situated on the second floor.
After the death of Thomas Dale the proprietors were Briscoe and Buckley and in 1890 were continuing to offer hot dinners of chops or steak as well as offering accommodation to “commercials, tourists and cyclists” under the Dale Temperance Hotel and Coffee Tavern banner. The building was purchased by Warwickshire County Council in 1936 and was used initially as the Staff Club before conversion to offices.
Mr Dale lived at 38 Coten End Warwick and is believed to have purchased Christ Church once situated at the top of the Parade in Leamington Spa.
Former Dale Temperance Hotel and Coffee Tavern
A temperance hotel and coffee tavern, built in 1880 for Thomas Bellamy Dale to designs by Frederick H Moore, ARIBA (1841-1924).
MATERIALS: The building is constructed from red brick with terracotta detailing, under plain clay tile roofs.
PLAN: The building is orientated east-west, having a four-bay range fronting the street, with a narrow bay set back to the west housing the stair; a large, five-bay range extends to the rear.
EXTERIOR: The building is of three storeys and a basement, with hipped roofs and tall gable-end stacks to the front range. The main elevation has bands of terracotta decoration in guilloche pattern marking the first and second floors, and there are floral decorative details to the window architraves. There are round-arched doorways to either side of the ground floor, that to the west having a moulded architrave with keystone; above each is a panel of terracotta decoration with moulded surround, depicting flowers in an Arts and Crafts style. The ground and first floors have round-arched windows with decorative aprons and moulded architraves to the arches, all with mullions and transoms to the lower parts and multiple smaller panes to the arched sections; those to the ground floor have stained glass in yellow shades depicting flowers and birds. The second floor has rectangular-headed windows of similar pattern; to either side of the second-floor windows are terracotta panels reading COFFEE / TAVERN. The rear elevations are largely plain, and have round-arched windows to the first floor and rectangular windows elsewhere, all set in plain reveals.
INTERIOR: The interior retains part of its original lobby with round-arched glazed arcading immediately inside the entrance. The stair is a closed string with turned balusters and a moulded rail, with square-section newel posts with single flutes, pyramid knops and large ball finials. The principal rooms have all been subdivided into office space, but the original moulded cornice remains in situ, broken by the later partitions; the round-arched windows have matching architraves; and the majority of the original fireplaces are still in situ. The former coffee room on the ground floor and the former club room on the first floor both have good Arts and Crafts stone fireplaces with tile inserts by Minton, designed by John Moyr Smith, depicting scenes from Shakespeare and Tennyson's Idylls of the King.
HISTORY: The Dale Temperance Hotel and Coffee Tavern was built in 1880 by Thomas Bellamy Dale (1809-1890), a local manufacturer and philanthropist who was much concerned with charitable work and the improvement of living conditions within the city. Dale was a partner in the firm of George Nelson, Dale and Co, with his cousin George Nelson; the firm had developed a business manufacturing gelatine for use in the photographic process, and supplied products to the home market as well as exporting to the United States. The building was designed by Frederick Holyoake Moore, ARIBA (1841/2-1924), a Warwick architect who lived in nearby Northgate Street. The site was occupied by two houses until bought in 1879 by Thomas Dale, who erected his Temperance Hotel and Coffee Tavern to provide teetotal entertainment as an alternative to the many public houses which were widely blamed for causing drunkenness and ill-health amongst the working-class people of the town. The facilities included a ground-floor bar and coffee room with service rooms to the rear; the first floor was largely occupied by a bagatelle and smoke room to the front, and a large committee and club room to the rear, capable of division by a folding partition. The second floor housed bedrooms for hotel guests. After Dale's death in 1890, the building, still known as the Dale Temperance Hotel, continued in business as such, until its purchase by Warwickshire County Council for £2550 in 1936, after which it was used as the Council's Staff Club. In the later C20, the interior of the building was partitioned internally to provide office space, in which use it remained at the time of inspection in 2010.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The former Dale Temperance Hotel and Coffee Tavern, built in 1880 by Frederick Holyoake Moore for the manufacturer and philanthropist Thomas Bellamy Dale, is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
- Architectural interest: the building, designed by Frederick Holyoake Moore, ARIBA, is a distinctive and decorative late C19 building with good terracotta decoration
- Historic interest: it is a relatively rare survival of a coffee tavern associated with the temperance movement, which was particularly strong in the period of its construction
- Interior: the decorative scheme includes good architect-designed fireplaces with Minton Arts and Crafts tile decoration by John Moyr Smith, and good coloured glass work by Frank Holt and Co
- Intactness: despite the later internal partitioning and some associated losses, the building retains its historic interior scheme largely intact.