Manor House Hotel

Details

TORQUAY

SX9063 SEAWAY LANE, Chelston 885-1/17/343 Manor House Hotel 10/01/75

GV II

Shown on OS map as Chelston Cross. House, now in use as hotel. c1867, extended 1881 (datestone). Parts of the interior said to have been designed by RE Froude and HM Brunel for William Froude, pioneer of experimental ship tanks. Purple slatestone with grey limestone and polychromatic brick dressings; tarred hipped slate roof with evidence of original ornamentally-cut slates; stacks with diagonally-set brick shafts and projecting cornice above a toothed frieze. Eclectic High Victorian style. PLAN: Irregular plan. Approximately rectangular main block with the principal (garden) elevation facing south-east, overlooking the sea. Entrance on north west side into stair hall. Service wing extends to the north-east, on the same axis, with probable chapel. Subsidiary wing at right-angles to north west. Triangular service yard between wings with stable range on north-east side. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and attic Slightly asymmetrical 1:3:1-bay south-east front in main range. Rusticated grey limestone quoins; toothed brick frieze below eaves; toothed brick sill band. Crank-headed windows, glazed with high-transomed casements with glazing bars. Central projecting lateral stack, corbelled out below the eaves, the flues divided round ground and first floor windows. Canted bay to extreme left with a steep peaked roof. Extreme right-hand bay with hipped roof extended c1880s with canted bay with parapet, shoulder-headed windows and first-floor cast-iron balcony on stone brackets. Ironwork similar to Torquay pavilion; similar balcony to attic dormer which has hipped roof. Set of attic dormers with deep eaves and cusped bargeboards. Single-storey and attic 6-bay service wing to the right in the same style. Projecting forward from the service wing and parallel to it, a probable chapel with 3 lancet windows on the left and a canted bay on the south-east side. Entrance (north-east) elevation has a gabled 2-storey porch with a double-chamfered arched doorway with hoodmould; first-floor oriel window above with stone slate roof and plate glass windows; 2-light mullioned window in gable to left of the porch; one ground and one first-floor shoulder-headed windows to right of the porch and, set at an angle, a 3-stage tower with a toothed brick cornice below a deep hipped roof with sprocketed eaves, crowned with a lantern with a peaked roof and weathervane. Crank-headed windows arranged in pairs and triplets. Single-storey wing to left at obtuse angle similar to service wing in style. INTERIOR: Extraordinary and spectacular full-height 2-storey stair hall; staircase in Columbian pine, said to have been designed by HM Brunel and RE Froude. Stair with alternating diagonally-set stick and octagonal balusters rises to a gallery on 3 sides of the hall; gallery supported on timber brackets springing from stone corbels. From the gallery, a 'flying' flight of steps springs across the width of the hall to an attic room reached from a cantilevered landing. The balustrade of this flight has segmental-arched braces and resembles the side of a suspension bridge. The house retains many other features of interest: original doors; chimneypieces and stained glass. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1952-1989: P.865).

Listing NGR: SX9023863396

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

390796

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 865
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: South Devon, (1952), 865

End of official list entry

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