Torquay Museum
TORQUAY MUSEUM, BABBACOMBE ROAD
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1280070
- Date first listed:
- 10-Jan-1975
- List Entry Name:
- Torquay Museum
- Statutory Address:
- TORQUAY MUSEUM, BABBACOMBE ROAD
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2002-02-15
- Reference:
- IOE01/04486/31
- Rights:
- © Ms Judy Yates. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1280070
- Date first listed:
- 10-Jan-1975
- List Entry Name:
- Torquay Museum
- Statutory Address 1:
- TORQUAY MUSEUM, BABBACOMBE ROAD
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- TORQUAY MUSEUM, BABBACOMBE ROAD
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Torbay (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- SX 92314 63628
Details
TORQUAY
SX9263 BABBACOMBE ROAD 885-1/18/24 (North West side) 10/01/75 Torquay Museum
GV II
Museum. 1874-76 to the designs of William Harvey, contractor EP Bovey; Pengelly Memorial Hall and alterations of 1894; gallery addition opened 1928, to the designs of HC Powell, contractors EP Bovey (Ellis, p.13). Local grey limestone rubble with a crazed dressed face with fine joints, Bathstone dressings; shallow pitched hipped slate roof; stacks with shouldered chamfered stone shafts. Ruskinian Venetian Gothic style. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Symmetrical 5-bay front. Deep eaves with stone bracketed cornice; plinth of squared masonry brought to course; projecting strings, Bathstone bands. Moulded 3-centred doorway with stiff-leaf carved capitals to the imposts and carved roundels in the spandrels. Fine pair of iron gates with wrought-iron scrolls on either side of the verticals above the dog rail; standards with finials in imitation of Anglo-Saxon beast ornament. Tall ground-floor windows in stone architraves glazed with paired sashes (C20 glazing with timber glazing bars). First-floor windows also paired but divided by shafts, with stiff-leaf capitals. The windows are set in tall arched recesses, the tympana brick, 2 of them filled with fine terracotta relief panels; one shows botany, another shows natural history. The other 3 were never filled, due to lack of funds. The left return is in a similar style with one ground-floor and 2 first-floor windows. INTERIOR: Stair has attractive cast-iron balustrades; stairwell has good hammerbeam roof on carved corbels. The main gallery also has an open roof: arched braces on carved corbels support a tie beam with queen and princess posts with curved braces between. Upper tier of roof concealed by C20 flat ceiling. HISTORY: The museum was designed to house the Torquay Natural History Society, founded 1844, which researched Kent's Cavern and played an important part in the social history of Torquay in the second half of the nineteenth century. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1952-1989: P.854).
Listing NGR: SX9231463628
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 390482
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 854
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: South Devon, (1952), 854
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 24-Jun-2026 at 07:15:41.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.