The Station Hotel was built as an extension to the Rose and Crown, a beer house that first appears in the records in 1798. Given its position at the main gateway to the town it is probable that there had been a public house on the site for a very long time. The Rose and Crown stood in Towngate Street, opposite its junction with Mount Street and very near to where Poole Railway Station was built in 1872. In the following year it was upgraded to a Styring's Brewery ale house. When the railway came to the town, it was decided to build a new hotel to replace the Rose and Crown and an application was made for the rebuilding of a fully licensed hotel and this was granted in 1872.
The new hotel was built over the next two years 1873/74 alongside the old public house. When built it was intended to call it the Railway Hotel but as there were other Railway Hotels, the name was changed to Station Hotel. The Rose and Crown's building became an extension to the new hotel, and both buildings closed in about 1976 and were demolished in about 1983.
Extract from 'A Pint of Good Pale Ale, Poole's Inns, Taverns & Breweries', by Andrew Hawkes