Higher Trapp House Hotel

Image: © Bob Harvey Taken: 6 Mar 2019

I have my doubts about architects, I really do. In the middle of this assemblage is a fine mock-Tudor Gentleman's home. It is carefully symmetrical, with two ashlar bays and a double grotto below it. You couldn't ask for better. But some asked for bigger, and a designer some years later added a bit more black-and-white at the right, perhaps when it first became an hotel. That actually has some amusing quality, and I can forgive the loss of the overall style. Then the 1980s happened. Someone built a huge extension on the left, and tried to make it look as though it fits with a quick coat of half timbering. But it's in Brick, the windows are all wrong, and it really spoils the overall effect. A little later, but probably still within the 20th century, a conservatory was added above the grotto, and that looks pretty dreadful too. All this is odd, as the place is sold as a superior "destination" and for weddings and functions. That extension really helps with all that, but I am surprised more care was not taken with the appearance. Architects, eh?

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