The Old Toll House At Sx 9132 6371

The Old Toll House, located on Torbay Road in Torquay, is a toll house that has been converted for use as public lavatories. It was built around 1841 and has undergone some alterations since then. The structure is made of rock-faced local grey limestone, arranged in courses, with hammer-dressed dressings. It features a gabled slate roof with a lead ridge and stone chimney stacks with platbands.

The building is small and rectangular, with a porch on the north-west end and a chimney stack on the right end and rear left. It is a single-storey structure with a three-bay elevation facing Torbay Road. The main block has coped gables with kneelers and a corbelled parapet, which is accented by stone bands at both the base and top. There are three windows with chamfered frames, although they have modern glazing. The porch at the left end has a lower roofline and a coped gable, featuring one chamfered blocked 1-light window on the front. The doorway on the left end has been rebuilt in a chamfered style.

Historically, in 1848, the toll for horse-drawn carriages was six pence, and many hotels opted to pay a lump sum to spare their guests from the inconvenience of toll collection. An illustration from the historical survey of Torquay shows that the original design included a gabled porch on the front right, with a lantern that was swung around at night. The right end stack was depicted with a tall octagonal stone shaft. Eventually, the toll collection was moved to a toll house at the end of King's Drive to prevent disruption along this scenic route.