Brixham Town Hall Market Hall

Brixham Town Hall and Market Hall

Town hall and market hall built in 1886 by GS Bridgman of Torquay. The building is constructed of squared and coursed, rough-faced Devonian limestone with yellow-brick and Bath stone dressings. The roofs are slated, with the left roof hipped. A yellow-brick chimney stands on the rear wall.

The building's plan consists of a main body containing the market hall, which has been subdivided, with a theatre above it. This section stands gable-end on to New Road. To its left is an office-range featuring the main entrance and staircase. The Market Street front to the right has a short projection at each end — the front projection is rounded, while the rear projection, which is part of a cross-range running behind the market hall and theatre, is square. At right-angles to this cross-range, built in matching style, are the public toilets.

The building is designed in the Italianate Classical style. The exterior comprises two storeys (the toilets one storey), with a facade seven windows wide. The market hall itself is three windows wide. The centrepiece features a round-arched doorway on the ground storey with a moulded archivolt springing from moulded imposts. The archivolt bears the incised inscription "BRIXHAM MARKET". Above the doorway is a fanlight with glazing bars forming a circle and two semi-circles. Above this sits a tall round-arched window with moulded and fluted imposts and keystone, divided by stone mullions into three round-headed lights below and a large round light with radial bars above. The base of the window is inscribed "MARKET HALL". Above the window is a moulded cornice topped by a gable feature containing a blind round opening and flanked by pedestals carrying battlement-like blocks. A tall moulded metal finial crowns the apex of the gable. The outer windows are round-arched, those on the ground storey featuring moulded archivolts and imposts, those above with hoodmoulds and fluted keystones. The ground-storey windows have two round-headed lights in their upper part with a round light at the top. Above the second-storey windows, which are considerably shorter than the central window, are entablatures with tall brick parapets. The main entrance features a round arch with four attached shafts on each side, flanked by pilasters supporting paired fluted brackets that carry an entablature and parapet. The ground-storey windows to the left of the entrance are round-arched with moulded imposts and archivolts, containing sashes with the upper ones two-paned. Upper-storey windows have two-paned wood casements and transom-lights, with flat chamfered lintels supported by moulded capitals and brick jambs forming notional pilasters. A deep flat eaves-cornice with an ornate iron finial runs along the facade. The rounded projection to the right of the building is similar in character. The Market Street front is plainer, with segmental or round brick arches to windows and doorways and a boxed eaves-cornice. Both projections feature ornate iron finials. The toilets are similar in design.

The interior contains a main staircase of wood in early Georgian style, featuring a narrow open well with turned balusters having square necking-pieces. The theatre has arch-braced roof-trusses.

The building occupies the site of the former Naval Reservoir, from which pipes led down to King's Quay in the harbour and was used for watering naval ships. The 1886 building was used for the Pannier Market and appears to have replaced an earlier building which still survives on the Strand, now housing the Tourist Information Centre and a fishmonger's shop. The Fish Market, quite separate, still stands on The Quay, though it was rebuilt in the late 20th century.