A hotel that lays a claim to be England’s oldest has been destroyed in a huge fire in Exeter, firefighters have said. More than 100 emergency workers battled unsuccessfully to save the timber-framed Royal Clarence after a blaze started in a nearby building.

The flames also claimed other buildings in the centre of the city, despite firefighters working all day to contain them.

“Crews will be at the scene overnight and into tomorrow [Saturday] trying to stop the fire spreading to other historic buildings. The Clarence has been completely destroyed,” a spokesman for Devon and Somerset fire service said late on Friday night.

About 120 firefighters were called to the scene to try to stop the blaze, which started early on Friday morning. Reserve firefighters were among those mobilised to operate the 27 regular pumps and a high-volume pump, with four aerial ladder platforms also deployed.

Earlier on Friday a fire brigade spokesman said the fire had started in the art gallery Exeter Gallery, opposite the cathedral. “That has [also] been completely destroyed,”he said, adding that it spread to the Clarence from there.

The local historian Dr Todd Gray said the hotel was “in the heart of what was not just the medieval city, but within the precincts of Roman Exeter”.

He said: “For 2,000 years this area has been the focus of the city’s religious and commercial life.”



The ground and first floors of the hotel were medieval and the upper floors were added in the late 1700s when the building was renamed a hotel. Gray told the BBC that the Clarence was “the building where they first declared themselves as a hotel. Before that happened [in the 1770s] we had inns, but they took the new French word and applied it to their building … this was the place to stay”.

He added: “What is so particularly heartbreaking about this loss is that these buildings escaped the blitz of 1942 when so much of Exeter was destroyed.”

The hotel was built in 1769 as the Assembly Rooms and renamed the Royal Clarence in 1827 after a visit by Adelaide, Duchess of Clarence. The duchess was queen consort of King William IV – the monarch succeeded on the British throne by Queen Victoria in 1837.



Earlier in the day firefighters said: “Because of the complex structure of the old buildings here we haven’t been able to put firefighters on the inside, so we’re fighting it from the outside.



“We’ve got the aerial ladder platforms so we are pouring water on top of it. We are trying to contain it but there are signs now of damage to the bedroom floors of the hotel.”

Efforts to fight the fire were consuming much of Exeter’s water supply. South West Water told customers in the city centre it had been forced to make alterations to its mains network to support the fire service.

“As a result some customers in the city centre, and potentially in the Wonford area, may experience low pressure or discolouration of their water supply,” the company said in a statement. “The Royal Devon and Exeter and Nuffield hospitals will not be affected.”

The fire began just after 5am. By Friday afternoon large crowds had gathered at police cordons surrounding Cathedral Green, the fire service spokesman said.

“There is a large amount of smoke coming off the building,” he said. “It’s right in the centre of Exeter so it’s getting a lot of attention from people watching what’s happening.”

Concealed voids and passageways within burning buildings, as well as their timber construction made the fire difficult to deal with, he said.

There were thought to be no injuries and everyone believed to have been in the buildings had been accounted for, according to Devon and Cornwall police.

The cause of the fire was not believed to be suspicious.