Hatley St George

Hatley St George is a large villa dating from 1846, built by Harvey (Ellis), although it is uncertain which of the younger Harveys this refers to. The villa is double-depth and rectangular, with a south-facing front and an entrance on the west return leading into a passage where the staircase rises.

The exterior is plastered and has a slate roof with rendered stacks. The west front, which is the entrance front, has three bays with a slight break in the eaves, carried up over a shallow gable. It features three windows with architrave surrounds; the centre window of the first floor is round-headed with an impost break and keystone. Venetian shutters are present. A ground-floor window to the right has a dentil pediment on carved shaped brackets. A large central porch features Doric piers and fluted columns in antis, with a panelled door, side lights, and a rectangular fanlight. The south garden front has flanking pilaster strips and a central, three-window, hipped projection flanked by single windows. Recessed glazing bar sash windows are found on the first floor, with moulded sills on consoles and Venetian shutters. The ground-floor windows have plinth bases with panelled architrave surrounds and long, shaped console brackets supporting dentil pediments - the centre window of the canted projection having a segmental pediment. The east elevation features four windows articulated with pilaster strips; alternate triangular and segmental pediments crown the ground-floor windows. The window on the right has been reset in front of a later canted bay.

Inside, original mouldings and cornices are retained. A top-lit staircase has an oval skylight, open string, slender turned balusters, a swept rail, and fluted columnar newels. Stucco decoration adorns the soffit of the staircase.

Hatley St George is a rare, largely unaltered example of an early Torquay villa, and was renamed Bedford House by an occupant, St George, who lived there from 1852 to 1916.