The Old Sessions House

TORQUAY

SX9164 CASTLE LANE 885-1/14/64 (North side) 30/01/81 The Old Sessions House (Formerly Listed as: CASTLE LANE The Old Police Station)

GV II

Sessions House with police quarters and cells, now used as shops. 1873-1876 to the designs of Harbottle, contractor WA Goss (Ellis). Local grey limestone rubble with a crazed finish with fine joints; Bathstone and limestone ashlar dressings; slate roofs, hipped and gabled with terracotta ridge tiles with pierced cresting; stacks with stone shafts, corbelled cornices and stone caps. Original rainwater goods with fleur-de-lis and trefoil brackets. Eclectic Tudor style. PLAN: Rectangular on plan overall; series of blocks built round a central stable yard, later roofed over and converted to fire station. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys. Asymmetrical 4-bay front, the 3 right-hand bays with gables to the front. Two 2-centred chamfered arched doorways on front, one to the right preserving blind tracery in the overlight; second bay doorway altered for shopfront. 2-light ground-floor windows with central column. 3-light first-floor windows with stone architraves, the 2 centre ones in a shallow oriel with a crenellated parapet. Second-floor windows paired lancets with drip moulds. The left-hand in a shallow gabled oriel on brackets. The other elevations are in a similar style, preserving most of the original windows and doors. INTERIOR: Previous List description notes former court room with carved stone corbels to arch-braced tie-beam roof; seating removed. Cells with vaulted ceilings still intact, notorious because John Lee, "the man they could not hang" was kept there before his trial. (Ellis AC: An Historical Survey of Torquay, 2nd edition: 1930-: P.320).

Listing NGR: SX9164964268