Austins

Austins is a hotel that has been converted into a department store, located on a corner site in Newton Abbot. It was built in 1842 by Charles Fowler and underwent remodeling around 1990. The building features painted stucco and stone, with wide eaves cornice on a shallow-pitched slate roof, and moulded and brick stacks at the returns and ridge.

The structure is likely L-shaped and consists of three storeys. Each facade on Bank and Courtenay Street has a five-window range, with a former ballroom on the right that originally had a four-window range, now housing shops on the ground floor. The building has banded pilasters at the corners, a continuous sill band on the second floor, and a moulded sill string course on the first floor. The second floor is adorned with 3/3-pane sash windows featuring moulded architraves, rounded arrises, stepped keystones, and panelled aprons. The first floor has 6/1-pane sash windows, while the ground floor of the Bank Street facade features plate-glass sashes.

On the Courtenay Street facade, the first floor has 6/6-pane sash windows, with tripartite arrangements at the outer ends and centre. A large prostyle portico, supported by paired granite Tuscan columns, has a cornice that extends from the sill string. The first-floor balcony is enclosed by a cast-iron railing, and shop windows flanking the portico have been enlarged and cut into the plinth, featuring small panes at the tops.

Inside, there is an open-well open-string staircase at the rear left, with cast-iron balusters and a wreathed mahogany handrail, along with a curtail step. The upper flight has stick balusters. Historically, this building was known as the Globe Hotel and was a key part of the street's development in the 1840s, serving as a large hotel for a busy route in pre-railway Devon. The former ballroom has been rebuilt and is not of special interest.