The former Metrepole Hotel, Minehead

The sandstone Metrepole Hotel, now a public house and flats, was built for Thomas Ponsford in the late 1890s with a 70 ft by 40 ft lounge open to the roof; the whole hotel decorated by Liberty’s. The hotel had nine resident staff on census night 1901. A new wing was added in 1910 and provided 54 bedrooms for visitors and seven for staff, four bathrooms, billiard, smoking and other public rooms.