Burslem Coats of Arms and Female Heads (sculpture)
at Burslem
 

Location:  On the façade of the George Hotel, Chapel Lane and Nile Street , Burslem
Installed: 1929
Commissioned by: George Hotel
Architects: Longden and Venables
 

Photos: Jan 2006 

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The George Hotel which is bounded by Nile Street
(where the Royal Doulton factory was), Swan Square and Chapel Lane.

This photo is taken from Chapel Lane at the rear of the hotel

Photos: Dec 1999 

In Arnold Bennett's novels he renamed the
George Hotel as 'The Dragon' (for obvious reasons!) 

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Around the top of the building's façade are three female heads.

Photos: Jan 2006 

Description: A classically styled building with the stripped look of the Art Deco period. There are three reliefs of the Burslem coat of arms, two on opposing sides of the upper façade, the third over a courtyard entrance. The arms are a quartered shield charged with two Portland vases, a scythe, and a pattern of interwoven lines. Around the top of the building's façade are three female heads.   Background: There has been an inn on this site since Elizabethan times. The present building replaces an earlier one on this site, also known as the George Hotel, which burnt down in 1926. It had been well known to the local author, Arnold Bennett, appearing as the Dragon Inn in his Five Towns novels, including Anna of the Five Towns (1902).

   

Materials:

Part of work	Material	Dimensions
Coats of arms	Sandstone	90cm high x 90cm wide x 6cm deep approx
Heads	Sandstone	25cm high x 25cm wide x 25cm deep approx

face and arms at the Nile Street side of the hotel