On 4 November 1839, local politician and activist John Frost led a protest march of 3,000 Chartists, 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.

[5] The hotel was substantially rebuilt in 1884 but the original pillars were retained,[6] and the present structure built in French Renaissance style.

[8] 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.

[13] 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.