The Wessex Hotel - Trust Annual Report 1964
The Wessex Hotel was completed early in the year and is an undoubted asset to Winchester. An hotel on an island site is an infrequently encountered problem of the present building, it must be admitted that it is not entirely satisfactory. On reflection the decision to break up the forms into sections so that the mass of the whole in no way competes with the Cathedral, has not been very well achieved, but it must is be observed that large masses of unrelieved plain brickwork are extremely unattractive. Traditionally, brickwork has been set off with interesting fenestration, providing incident and light and shade, and these qualities are entirely lacking. The use of flint, a local building material, on the south front also seems somewhat clumsy, not blending well with the more modern and effective treatment of the rooms above.
The most extraordinary feature, however, is to be found in the arches supporting the bedroom wing. These give the impression that the matter of the drainage, and how to get it down to ground level, had been completely forgotten in the original plans. As far as one could see during the period of construction, the form of the reinforced concrete columns and arches had some relevance to the superstructure, and one said to oneself "Ah! when we can see the whole thing without the wooden screens, perhaps it will look all right." But then a motley collection of bulbous drainpipes began to festoon themselves down the inner columns, and these had to be hidden by an elephantine blue brick outer column having no relevance to the essential structure or the arches above, ending as they do quite abruptly. Then to make everything match, these outer columns having no drainpipes, were subjected to the same treatment but to smaller diameter.
The opportunity of seeing the Cathedral Close from a pleasant arcaded courtyard seems to have misfired, and the impression from the Close is no happier. Curiously enough, the north side of the building seems more effective and less self-conscious than the main front facing the Cathedral, where presumably the architect was trying hardest.