Oldway Mansion

A large house, now used as borough council offices. Built in 1873 to designs by George Somers Bridgman for Isaac Singer, founder of the sewing machine company, with construction by J. Matcham of Plymouth. The design was partly undertaken by Isaac Singer himself. The house was thoroughly remodelled between 1904 and 1907 for Singer's son Paris; the architect of this phase remains unknown.

Construction and Style

The building is stuccoed with a roof concealed behind parapets, except for a lead-covered lantern. The chimneys probably date from the 1870s and feature yellow brick shafts with stone bands and pots. The 1904–1907 rebuild is said to include a large proportion of concrete construction. The original building was in French Renaissance style. The remodelling, with elevations described in Pevsner as "stunningly bombastic", drew on various French precedents, including the Palace of Versailles.

Plan

The existing plan makes use of the outlines of Bridgman's double-depth arrangement, though a private theatre on the east side was demolished during the remodelling. The early 20th-century work cut a massive open well containing a top-lit stair hall for an imperial stair descending from the former ground floor to the former basement, which is now the level of the present main entrance on the north side facing the courtyard. The stair leads up to a ballroom on the east side. Other principal rooms face south, overlooking the formal gardens laid out by Duchêne, with a study on the north side (now the mayor's parlour). On the west side of the stair hall, at the old ground-floor level, is a gallery based on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, with a stair leading to the former first-floor rooms. The position of the early 20th-century service rooms is unclear; they were probably sited below the east range.

Exterior

The building is of three storeys except for the south elevation, which is two storeys. All elevations were remodelled in 1904–1907 except the west, which retains Bridgman's facade.

The entrance (north) elevation has 13 bays. The centre three bays are broken forward and pedimented, with the two narrow bays flanking the centre slightly broken forward. The ground floor has channelled rustication and recessed two-light windows with keyblocks. A modest entrance of triple doorways occupies the centre three bays. The first and second floors are divided by giant Ionic pilasters with an entablature and dentil cornice below a balustraded parapet. The centre three bays have distyle Ionic columns in antis, with a pediment above the entablature filled with a winged shield drooping over the cornice. First-floor windows in the outer bays have moulded architraves and are tall French windows opening onto individual cast-iron balconies between the pilasters. Second-floor windows in the outer bays are tall two-light casements, four panes per light, with moulded architraves, sill blocks and swags of cloth carved in relief beneath the sills. The narrow bays flanking the centre three have first-floor one-light transomed windows and round-headed one-light second-floor windows. The centre three bays have first-floor round-headed French windows with pilastered architraves featuring stucco mouldings and swags of cloth over the arches. These windows are glazed with small panes with spoke glazing bars and open onto a cast-iron balcony. Above the French windows are three blind oculi decorated with festoons of husk ornament.

The eight-bay east elevation also has a ground-floor loggia of small square-headed openings with keyblocks, with walls decorated with channelled rustication. Above this is a giant colonnade of Ionic columns with entablature and moulded cornice, creating a loggia with a coffered moulded ceiling and balustrade in front of the ballroom. The bays of the wall behind the loggia are divided by giant pilasters, with windows and details similar to the north elevation. Life-size statue groups stand on the roof at the left and right ends.

The nine-bay, two-storey south elevation has three-bay single-storey canted pavilions at either end. The ground floor has channelled rustication, with the centre three bays slightly broken forward and pedimented. There is a cornice at first-floor level and a balustraded parapet to the main block and pavilions. The central garden doorway to the main block and to each pavilion has a moulded architrave and keyblock, with small-pane French windows with fanlights featuring spoke glazing bars. A similar window opens onto a first-floor centre cast-iron balcony. Other ground-floor windows have moulded architraves and keyblocks, glazed with two-light small-pane casements. Similar first-floor windows have individual cast-iron balconies and carved panels over the lintels depicting Cupid at play. The narrower bays flanking the centre have blind panels, roundels and niches with husk and flower festoons and swags of drapery. The pediment is filled with a classical female nude, perhaps Venus, leaning on an amphora and looking at an owl.

The 2:3:3-bay west elevation is in yellow Flemish bond brick to Bridgman's designs, with a corbelled cornice, moulded tile relief and bowed balconies. A triple window lights the stair, with an attractive tiled panel below the stair window.

Interior

The interior mostly dates from the 1904–1907 phase but retains some 1870s features, particularly on the top floor. The remarkable 1904–1907 stair hall is said to be based on Charles Le Brun's unexecuted designs for the stair at Versailles for Louis XIV. It has a mosaic floor and an imperial stair with marble and bronze balustrades. A three-sided gallery on round-headed marble arcading sits at the old basement level. The east side of the stair hall was designed to accommodate Jacques-Louis David's painting showing Napoleon crowning Josephine (returned to France in 1946 and now hanging at Versailles). The west side has an Ionic screen of paired painted marble columns leading into the hall of mirrors. The north and south sides have paired gilded doors with elaborate overdoors and tall marble pilasters flanking statue niches containing sculpted headless torsos with armour and helmets. The space is crowned by a spectacular painted ceiling above an enriched cornice featuring trompe-l'œil paintings of allegorical classical figures.

The ballroom to the east has a sprung woodblock floor and probably original light fittings. It is lined with fixed mirrors with gilded surrounds and decoration of flaming torches and musical instruments. The north end has a coloured Italian marble chimneypiece with an original integral fireback and cast-iron surround. Above the chimneypiece, gilded side panels with an elaborate swan-necked pediment bearing the Bourbon crest frame a 1717 painting of Louis of Bourbon, Prince of Asturias. Flanking the chimneypiece are paired doors below bow-fronted galleries. A white Italian marble chimneypiece on the west wall has a large mirror above and glazed doors to left and right below classical panels carved in relief. Two paired doors from the stair gallery have overdoors with integral trompe-l'œil flower paintings.

The hall of mirrors is lined with round-headed mirrors in marble architraves and contains an 18th-century white marble statue of a woman playing a pipe, as well as two Greek-style candlesticks. The study, now the mayor's parlour, to the north has full-height fluted oak Corinthian columns flanking paired doors with carved round-headed overdoors and relief sculpture above. The suite of rooms on the south side also retains original chimneypieces (some from Bridgman's phase), mirrors and elaborate plaster cornices.

Bridgman's stair, with a balustrade of cast-iron panels and a ramped handrail, rises from the hall of mirrors to the upper floor, which also retains plasterwork and chimneypieces, although it is now re-partitioned for office use. Numerous features of interest, including statuary from the 1904–1907 phase, survive but are not mentioned individually here.

History

Isaac Singer's drawings for the Bridgman phase survive and are owned by the borough council. A small museum in the entrance hall contains numerous photographs and documents relating to the history of the house, including photographs of Bridgman's building. Paris Singer is said to have obtained permission to scaffold the Galerie des Glaces at Versailles to examine Le Brun's colour scheme as a model for the stair hall at Oldway. The Singer family had a major impact on the development of Paignton, buying and developing land in the town. Paris Singer had an affair with Isadora Duncan, who spent some time at Oldway; the house was used as the set for the film 'Isadora'. Plans to develop Paignton into the centre of a film industry, intended to be the British answer to Hollywood, were based at Oldway and Little Oldway. In 1914 the house was converted into the American Women's War Hospital. In 1929 it was reused as the Torbay Country Club, with some alterations to the basement level. The RAF requisitioned the building in 1939. It was bought from the Singer family by the borough council in 1945 for £45,000.