The Town Hall

TORQUAY

SX9164 CASTLE CIRCUS 885-1/14/59 (North West side) 10/01/75 The Town Hall

GV II

Town hall. 2 phases. First phase was the Carnegie Public Library, 1906-7, to the designs of Thomas Davison of London; contractor RE Narracott of Stoke Gabriel. Second phase of Town Hall with committee rooms etc, 1910-11; same architect, contractor R Wilkins of Bristol (Ellis). Snecked local grey limestone with freestone dressings; slate roof behind parapet; stacks with stone shafts with moulded cornices and multiple pots. Edwardian Baroque style. PLAN: Main block fronts Castle Circus with central entrance into stair hall with committee rooms above. Principal hall entered on the right return (Lymington Road); entrance into former Public Library on corner between Castle Circus and Union Street. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and basement; single storey hall. 3-stage clock tower over entrance. Almost symmetrical 1:5:1:5:1-bay front; centre and outer bays broken forward with rusticated quoins; basement masonry rusticated. Projecting cornice with dentil course below balustraded parapet. Central Doric porch with 3 columns at each front corner with an entablature with triglyphs and guttae. First-floor Diocletian stair window with swags of fruit. Ground-floor windows with Gibbs surrounds with triple keystones. First-floor windows with moulded architraves and alternating segmental-headed and gabled open pediments. Outer bays have round-headed eared niches containing tall windows with triple keystones. Left-hand window with stained glass; stone panels with appropriate texts over the niches. Clock tower has pedimented gabled base supporting a first stage with triple Ionic columns at the corners with an entablature. The 2 upper stages are open with angle pilasters and pinnacles with Baroque finials. The left (Union Road) elevation, the former library, has a domed semicircular entrance block, the first floor articulated with a blind Ionic colonnade with paired columns; square-headed doorway below. 4-window front to the left. The Lymington Road elevation has 3 irregular bays to the left in a similar style and, to the right, the entrance to the main hall which is 1:3:1 bays, the centre 3 recessed and divided by triple keystones and text panels above. The town hall basement is railed off with a good set of contemporary iron railings including vertical panels with scrollwork. Pair of fine coeval iron gates to the main porch incorporating roundels with armorial bearings surrounded by cartouche work. INTERIOR: Historic features include 2 flights of stairs rising from the entrance hall, the wells lined with local and Italian marbles; marble balustrade; coved plaster ceiling to first floor. Contemporary joinery includes elaborate committee room doors with overdoors. The Town Hall forms an important focus to the upper part of the town at Castle Circus. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1952-1989: P.854).

Listing NGR: SX9137464346