Castle Chambers

Castle Chambers is a hospital, later adapted for use as a County Court, built in 1850 and significantly updated between 1892 and 1893. The contractor for the 1892-93 works was Joshua Chubb of Torquay; the architect remains unknown. The building is constructed from snecked local grey limestone, with dressings of Bathstone and limestone ashlar, and has gabled slate roofs with stacks featuring stone shafts and moulded cornices. It is designed in a Tudor style, incorporating Perpendicular arches.

The building has a deep, approximately rectangular plan, including a rear yard bounded by smaller buildings, one of which was formerly a mortuary and is now in commercial use. The main front has three storeys and an attic, while the rear elevation rises to four storeys and an attic. The seven-bay front is almost symmetrical, with a central, machicolated tower that projects forward and is topped by an octagonal bell turret with a spire. Three coped gabled bays of varying heights are set forward to the right and left. Stone mullioned windows are found throughout, many with transoms and dripmoulds featuring carved label stops. A projecting, single-storey, embattled porch is centrally located, with a coped gable, angle buttresses with batterings, and a moulded-arched outer doorway adorned with carved spandrels and a square-headed dripmould with carved stops. The double-leaf outer door has blind tracery, and a moulded arched inner door. A canted bay window is positioned above the porch on the first floor. The third floor features a pair of arched, traceried windows with transoms and dripmoulds. A Tudor-arched doorway with a dripmould and carved label stops is located in the first bay from the left. The bell turret contains trefoil-headed louvred openings, a lead spine with lucarnes, and an iron finial. The rear elevation incorporates a small, lancet-style mortuary.

The interior has not been inspected, but may retain features of interest. The building's funding and the involvement of local philanthropists are detailed in Ellis’s An Historical Survey of Torquay. A new hospital was constructed on a different site in 1924.