The Westgate Hotel, Commercial Street, Newport,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

is a hotel building dating from the 19th century. On 4 November 1839 the hotel saw the major scenes of the

Newport Rising The Newport Rising was the last large-scale armed rising in Wales, by Chartists whose demands included democracy and the right to vote with a secret ballot. On Monday 4 November 1839, approximately 4,000 Chartism, Chartist sympathisers, under ...

, when 3,000

Chartists Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of 1838 and was a national protest movement, ...

, some of them armed, led by John Frost marched on Newport to attempt to secure the release of five of their number who were being held under arrest at the hotel. In the fighting between about 60 soldiers of the

45th Regiment of Foot The 45th (Nottinghamshire) (Sherwood Foresters) Regiment of Foot was a British Army line infantry regiment, raised in 1741. The regiment saw action during Father Le Loutre's War, the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War as w ...

and police on one side, and a larger number of Chartists on the other, 10-22 Chartists were killed and more than 50 wounded. The hotel is a

Grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

History

After the demolition of Newport's original West city gate, the site was reclaimed and a hotel constructed in 1779 on the site of a previous 15th-century house. The Westgate Hotel was the location of the last large-scale armed rebellion against authority in Great Britain. On 4 November 1839, local politician and activist John Frost led a protest march of 3,000

, some of them armed, into the centre of Newport. Here he discovered that several Chartists had been arrested and were being held in the Westgate Hotel by police, who were reinforced by soldiers of the 45th Regiment of Foot. Firing began (it is unclear who fired first), and in the fighting 10-22 people were killed and more than 50 others wounded.
John Frost: Leader of the Chartist Rebellion
', BBC Wales southeast, last update August 2009. Retrieved 2011-10-30. As many as 80 shots were fired into the hotel during the rising. Small holes in the pillars at the entrance to the hotel are assumed, by some, to be bullet holes from the insurrection, although this has not been evidenced. The hotel was substantially rebuilt in 1884 but the original pillars were retained, and the present structure built in

French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define th ...

style. Designed by local architect E. A. Lansdowne, it incorporated six shops at ground floor level to increase the site's rental income, and placed a new five-storey hotel above, with twice the floor size of the hotel it replaced, which included an ornate ballroom. Built by local builder John Linton, it was leased from its opening in 1886 to Samuel Dean of the Castle Hotel for twenty one years. In 2009 the building was placed on the Buildings at Risk Register as it had been substantially unoccupied for many years and the condition of its interior was beginning to cause concern. The main staircase and richly decorated public rooms are amongst the best surviving examples in the UK of their period. In 2012

Newport Unlimited Newport Unlimited was a Welsh Urban Regeneration Company created in 2003 to help counter the impacts of decline in Newport's heavy industry and manufacturing. It was initially given a 10-year lifespan. The Company was founded by Newport City Co ...

announced an initiative to bring the hotel back into use. In May 2017 the property was offered for auction with a guide price of between £1.5M and £1.75M. The building was purchased in October 2017 by Rugby Property Assets Limited of Warwickshire.

Chartist legacy

In 1991 three statues, titled "Union, Prudence, Energy" by sculptor Christopher Kelly, commemorating the 1839 Chartist uprising were installed on Commercial Street in front of the hotel. The hotel also featured in the 1978

Chartist Mural The Chartist Mural was a mosaic mural designed by Kenneth Budd and created in 1978 in a pedestrian underpass in Newport, Wales. It commemorated the Newport Rising of 1839, in which an estimated 22 demonstrators were killed by troops. It was ...

which was demolished during the 2013 development of Friars Walk in Newport city centre. The story of the rebellion was reflected in the

Manic Street Preachers Manic Street Preachers, also known simply as the Manics, are a Welsh rock band formed in Blackwood in 1986. The band consists of cousins James Dean Bradfield (lead vocals, lead guitar) and Sean Moore (drums, percussion, soundscapes), plus ...

' 2014 song "The View from Stow Hill". In July 2019, Our Chartist Heritage announced they would re-open part of the Westgate Buildings for a temporary display. The charity worked with the consortium who own the building, and local Newport graphic artist Josh Cranton, to bring the building up to a viable state for public access, ahead of the anniversary of the Chartist Rising. The interior was repainted and a free display was organised to commemorate the events of the rising.

Gallery

File:Westgate Hotel interior.jpg, Westgate Hotel interior shown during the 2019 partial opening Image:Westgate Hotel.jpg, The attack of the

on the Westgate Hotel, 4 November 1839 File:Union, Prudence, Energy - geograph.org.uk - 524590.jpg, ''Union, Prudence, Energy'', sculpture outside The Westgate Hotel commemorating the Chartist Movement and 1839 Newport Rising

References

{{City of Newport Hotel buildings completed in 1884 History of Newport, Wales Culture in Newport, Wales Grade II listed buildings in Newport, Wales Structures on the Heritage at Risk register Defunct hotels in Wales