Hesketh Crescent And Attached Railings No 1-15 And Attached Railings

Hesketh Crescent comprises a crescent of fifteen houses, now used as holiday flats and a hotel. Built between 1846 and 1848, it was designed by the younger Harveys for Sir Laurence Palk. The exterior is plastered with a concealed roof behind a parapet and rendered stacks featuring platbands. The plan is of a concave terrace with each house double-depth, one room wide, and a door slightly off-centre. The central five bays are conceived as a single unit with a central doorway.

The three-storey building, with a basement and attic (the attic storey a later addition), has a 47-bay facade. The central five bays project forward; the ground floor is rusticated, while the first and second floors feature fluted Composite pilasters supporting an enriched entablature below a deep projecting cornice with a dentil and modillion frieze. Pilasters also divide the attic windows, and these are crowned with urns. The windows have been reglazed with timber sash windows; the ground floor windows have segmental heads, keyblocks, and moulded architraves, while the first floor windows have alternating segmental and triangular pediments on consoles. Most of the other houses have round-headed ground-floor windows with channelled rusticated pilasters. Round-headed doorways are also present, and the first-floor level has cast-iron balconies with an anthemion pattern and tent roofs with fretted fascias. Cable moulding is situated at the second-floor level, alongside enriched friezes which match the central house. The end houses project forward with giant pilasters, and their first-floor windows are treated to match the central house. The returns are pedimented. A fine set of area railings with spearhead finials complement the decorative iron balconies.

The interior remains uninspected but is likely to contain features of interest. Reportedly, the central house was the residence of Sir Laurence Palk. It is noted that Hesketh Crescent was once described as “the finest crescent in the West of England.” The crescent enjoys a spectacular location overlooking the sea. It represents the grandest work undertaken in Torquay by the Harvey sons, whose father built Higher Terrace in 1811.