No 85 -  North Stafford Hotel
"perhaps the finest example of Neo-Jacobean architecture and Victorian urban planning in Staffordshire"

Winton Square 1928

 Early motor cars park up outside the North Stafford Hotel in the early part of the 20th century.

© The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery 
Staffordshire Past Track

"The railway station and station hotel, facing each other across Winton Square, Stoke, form perhaps the finest example of Neo-Jacobean architecture and Victorian urban planning in Staffordshire. 

Designed by H. A. Hunt of London in 1847, they were both built of brick, with black brick diamond decoration; both have shaped gables, and windows with mullions and transoms. The hotel, which is more compact than the station, opened in 1849, appropriately as The Railway Hotel. To either side of the hotel and enclosing the square is former staff housing built in the same style. 

The statue of Josiah Wedgwood, by Edward Dans, was added to Winton Square in 1863. Both hotel and station feature in the works of Arnold Bennett, where they are called The Five Towns Hotel and Knype station.

The North Stafford Hotel played a significant role in the history of the City. On March 31st, 1910 it played host to the original meeting of the council of the newly-created County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent. It was a day of brilliant sunshine and festivity, and the hotel was at its most splendid, with a profusion of flags and streamers adorning the imposing facade. A neutral venue for this meeting was essential because of the controversy over the site of government within the Six Towns. Major Cecil Wedgwood was elected first Mayor of the new borough of Stoke-on-Trent."

Neville Malkin 1st May 1974