The building is located at the western end of Prince of Wales Road,[3] at its junction with Agricultural Hall Plain.

The site of the new hotel had to be cleared of buildings previously occupied by a firm of solicitors, Fosters, Burroughs and Robberds and the yard of the stonemason company of Barnabas Barrett.

[8] The new hotel was designed by Boardman to be spacious, luxurious and to have installed the latest modern fixtures and fittings of the time.

Boardman also incorporated into the design of the new hotel part of the interior decoration of the former solicitor's offices which had stood on the site.

This section of ceiling had been very carefully removed and was installed in the new first floor drawing room in the hotel, along with French casements to the balcony.

The interior fixtures and fitting of the hotel were of the most modern and up to date of the era and providing the very latest in technology and building standards, whilst the design intent was to create the feel of a comfortable country mansion.

Boardman's design gave the hotel a total of 65 guest rooms over four of the storeys with the semi-circular shape of the frontage creating the attic bedrooms to have angular corners and sloping ceilings.

The hotel's first floor dining room was to facilitate private dinners and wedding receptions and consisted of a suite which could accommodate twenty people.

The Royal Hotel was officially opened on the 16 November 1897 with a grand luncheon which was hosted by the Company Chairman, Mr T. C. Blofield.

Sir Harry Bullard proposed a toast to the hotel's success and praised "the very elegant palace that had been erected".

On one occasion the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson and some members of his cabinet stayed at the hotel.

For the next 20 years the hotel became popular with actors and actress who appeared in Anglia's network drama programmes or in their regular local series.

Things came to a head when the hotel's owners applied for planning permission to demolish[15] the building and replace it with glass towered office block.