The Paignton Club

PAIGNTON

SX8960 THE ESPLANADE 1947-1/6/95 (South side) 13/03/51 The Paignton Club

GV II

Purpose-built club. 1881. MATERIALS: Stuccoed and blocked out; roof and stacks concealed behind parapet. Classical style. PLAN: On an important side at one end of the esplanade. Double-depth rectangular plan with bowed ends. Central entrance into stair hall, with (formerly) heated rooms to left and right with bowed ends; large first-floor billiard room with smaller offices to left and right. Services originally in the basement, which has been converted to a flat, services now to the rear in a later addition. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and basement. Symmetrical 5-bay front with a 5-bay verandah created by an Ionic colonnade with a parapet pierced by small lancets; similar parapet to main block. Verandah has low balustrade on High Victorian cast-iron standards with foliage decoration. Steps up to verandah with C19 central doorway with moulded architrave and with unusual stuccoed brackets supporting a crested cornice; half-glazed door with overlight. The other bays on the ground floor have similar doorways with high-transomed French windows. First-floor windows have similar architraves and brackets but with shallow pediments over; French windows to match ground floor. 3-bay bows to left and right rise to first-floor level and have similar parapets; bays divided by large Corinthian half columns. Round-headed windows in bows have moulded, pilastered architraves with keyblocks. Bays to rear of bows are windowed to match the front. Rear elevation, to Roundham Road, has 3 first-floor pedimented windows and single-storey flat-roofed service addition. INTERIOR: Original joinery includes large 2-leaf panelled doors to ground-floor room from stair hall. Unusual angled timber cornice with pierced pattern. Steep stair with mahogany turned balusters and handrail. Billiard room has decorative roof vents and 2 timber fireplaces of an Edwardian character. Early fittings including tables and scoreboards. Dumb waiter in billiard room, probably original. (DoE: List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: 1975-).

Listing NGR: SX8935960377