The Mansion House

House, now restaurant and offices with accommodation above. Built in 1736 for Captain Edward Ashe and renovated in 1979, this is located on Mansion House Street in Dartmouth.

The building is constructed of stone rubble, plastered on the front which may be brick or have brick dressings. The end and rear elevations have 19th-century brick chimneyshafts. The roof is slate.

The plan is double-depth, comprising two rooms wide with a central entrance hall and rear stairhall.

The exterior presents three storeys with a symmetrical five-window front. The plastered front is lightly blocked out as ashlar. The central doorway and ground-floor windows are all round-headed with moulded stucco architraves featuring triple keystones. The doorway is emphasised by sidelights (8-pane sashes) with channelled rustication below and moulded cornices above. It contains a fielded 10-panel door and fanlight with a radial pattern of glazing bars. The ground-floor windows have round-headed 18-pane sashes with top radial glazing bars. A plat band runs at first-floor level. The first floor contains 19th-century horned 8-pane sashes with unusual horizontal panes (the left two are blind), and the second floor has 19th-century horned 4-pane sashes. Plain eaves lead to a parallel roof hipped at both ends.

The interior contains one of the finest 18th-century interiors of any Devon town house. The principal rooms display excellent moulded plasterwork. The entrance hall features an ornamental ceiling and modillion cornice. A round-headed arch to the stairhall is flanked by large Corinthian pilasters. A large top-lit open-well stair has an open string with carved stair brackets, turned newel posts and three turned balusters with blocks to each tread, a moulded flat handrail and a curtail step. At first-floor level, the plasterwork is richly embellished with an arcade containing panels representing the 12 labours of Hercules, and roundels above doorways containing male and female busts. A Vitruvian frieze appears at second-floor level with linked roundels containing the signs of the zodiac. The vaulted ceiling to the skylight features pointed-arch panels springing from corbels fashioned as heads. A secondary stair rises from first to second floor alongside the grand stairhall with a less-elaborate balustrade, while a second-floor gallery in the same style as the lower stair connects across the front of the stairhall.

The principal room on the first floor to the right is particularly fine and remains completely original except for a 19th-century marble chimneypiece. The fireplace is flanked by shell-headed alcoves above a moulded dado, with panelled pilasters and a moulded architrave featuring heads on the keystones and swags. Two further alcoves at the opposite end flank a wide doorway leading to the smaller end room, and the soffit of the segmental arch is enriched with plasterwork. A modillion cornice crowns the room, and a fine ceiling features ornamental plasterwork depicting Hercules being welcomed to Paradise by the pantheon of classical gods. The smaller connecting room and the room below retain original fielded panelling in two heights, with the lower room featuring fluted Ionic pilasters flanking the fireplace and two more shell alcoves with cherub-head keyblocks.

Other good original details throughout the building include fielded-panel doors, eared architraves and moulded cornices. The roof was not inspected.

This well-preserved town house demonstrates exceptionally high-quality craftsmanship. The plasterwork has parallels at The Old Custom House (1739) on Bayards Cove and The Priory, Totnes.