Torbay Council

Listed building outline: The Old Sessions House 390534

Legend

• Torbay Council boundary
• Listed building outlines

The Old Sessions House 390534

• geometry: MULTIPOLYGON (((-3.528292 50.468321,-3.528424 50.468178,-3.528012...
• entry-date: 1981-01-30
• listed-building: 1280077
• name: The Old Sessions House
• notes: Sessions House with police quarters and cells, now used as shops. 1873-1876 to the designs of Harbottle, contractor WA Goss (Ellis). Local grey limestone rubble with a crazed finish with fine joints; Bathstone and limestone ashlar dressings; slate roofs, hipped and gabled with terracotta ridge tiles with pierced cresting; stacks with stone shafts, corbelled cornices and stone caps. Original rainwater goods with fleur-de-lis and trefoil brackets. Eclectic Tudor style. PLAN: Rectangular on plan overall; series of blocks built round a central stable yard, later roofed over and converted to fire station. EXTERIOR: 3 storeys. Asymmetrical 4-bay front, the 3 right-hand bays with gables to the front. Two 2-centred chamfered arched doorways on front, one to the right preserving blind tracery in the overlight; second bay doorway altered for shopfront. 2-light ground-floor windows with central column. 3-light first-floor windows with stone architraves, the 2 centre ones in a shallow oriel with a crenellated parapet. Second-floor windows paired lancets with drip moulds. The left-hand in a shallow gabled oriel on brackets. The other elevations are in a similar style, preserving most of the original windows and doors. INTERIOR: Previous List description notes former court room with carved stone corbels to arch-braced tie-beam roof; seating removed. Cells with vaulted ceilings still intact, notorious because John Lee, the man they could not hang was kept there before his trial. (Ellis AC: An Historical Survey of Torquay, 2nd edition: 1930-: P.320). Listing NGR: SX9164964268
• reference: 390534
• start-date: 1981-01-30