The Old Town Hall is a former municipal building in Union Street,

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignt ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, England. The building, which was the headquarters of Torquay Borough Council until 1911, is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

The new

local board of health A local board of health (or simply a ''local board'') was a local authority in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulat ...

for Tormoham, as the area was then known, treated the commissioning of a town hall as a key priority after it was formed in 1850. The building was designed by a Mr Dixon in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Ita ...

, built in

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and was completed in June 1852. The design featured a three-stage

bell tower A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell to ...

on the corner of Abbey Road and Union Street; there was a round headed window in the first stage, twin

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

s in the second stage and, originally, a triple-lancet arrangement of bell louvres in the third stage, with a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

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

and a shallow hipped roof above. On the Union Street elevation, the central section of three bays, which projected forward, featured a wide opening on the ground floor, a

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

ed Venetian window with a

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

on the first floor and a

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 windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

with a cornice supported by

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

on the second floor. The outer bays featured round headed openings on the ground floor, pedimented sash windows with balustrades and cornices supported by brackets on the first floor and unpedimented sash windows with cornices supported by brackets on the second floor. At roof level, there was a modillioned pediment above the central section and a modillioned cornice above the outer bays. Internally, the upper floors were used for the civic rooms while the basement and the ground floor were used as a lock-up for petty criminals. Following significant population growth, largely associated with the status of Torquay as a seaside resort, the area became a

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

with the town hall as its headquarters in 1892. A manual clock mechanism and a series of clock faces were added to the tower in the late 19th century; there is also a bell by Warner & Sons. However, in the early 20th century, with the increasing responsibilities of local authorities, civic leaders found the building too small for their needs, and the council relocated to the new town hall further to the northwest along Union Street in 1911. The old town hall was subsequently used as office space until the mid-1950s when the first floor of the building was converted for use as a

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

by the Torquay United Hebrew Congregation. The congregation dissolved and the synagogue closed in 2000. Meanwhile, the ground floor of the building had been re-purposed for use as ladies' and gentlemen's public toilets. In the 21st century, the first floor was converted for use as a bar, initially branded as Fat Catz and latterly branded as Bar Envy. However, after the bar closed, the building was sold at auction in December 2021.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1852 City and town halls in Devon Buildings and structures in Torquay Grade II listed buildings in Devon