The Old Town Hall, also known as No. 9 Devon Square, is a former municipal building in Devon Square in Newton Abbot, a town in Devon, in England. The structure, which started life as a private house and was later converted for municipal use, is a Grade II listed building.

History

The building was commissioned by the local landowner, William Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon, as part of a terrace of five properties on Devon Square. The site he chose was occupied by a lock-up which was used to accommodate escaped prisoners from HM Prison Dartmoor and was supervised by the Superintendent Constable of the Lock-up House, William Thomas Baker. The terrace was designed by the earl’s architect, William John Rowell, in the Italianate style, built in brick with a

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...

finish and was completed in 1862. On completion of the building, Rowell moved into No. 9 himself, accompanied by his wife and children. Rowell continued to live there until he died in September 1911. The building was then taken over by the YMCA which remained there until after the Second World War. In the 1980s, the building was acquired by Newton Abbot Town Council as their offices and meeting place and an extension was added at its rear. The Newton Abbot Town and Great Western Railway Museum was established in the building in the early 1990s. At a ceremony in the building, the commanding officer of the nuclear submarine, HMS ''Triumph'', Commander Steve Waller, accepted the freedom of the town in September 2019. In March 2020, the town council relocated to St Leonard's Church in Wolborough Street, which was restored and converted to accommodate the council. The museum followed to St Leonard's Church in October 2020. The building in Devon Square, which was renamed Great Western House, was subsequently occupied by a firm of funeral directors, Parker's Family Funeral Directors.

Architecture

The two-storey building, No. 9 Devon Square, is at one end of the terrace, and was originally a mirror image of No. 13 Devon Square, at the other end of the terrace. Like No. 13, it is projected forward from the centre of the terrace, and its front is three bays wide and features an

oculus Oculus (a term from Latin ''oculus'', meaning 'eye'), may refer to the following Architecture * Oculus (architecture), a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Oculus'' (film), a 2013 American ...

in the centre of the gable. The ground floor is fenestrated by rusticated

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s which are pedimented, except for the central bay which is surmounted by a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

. The first floor is fenestrated round headed windows; the window in the central bay is surmounted by a curved pediment. Access to No. 9 is up a short flight of steps and through a doorway on the St Paul's Road frontage to the building. The entire terrace was

grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1975.

Notes

References

{{reflist City and town halls in Devon Newton Abbot Grade II listed buildings in Devon Government buildings completed in 1862