Arcaded Retaining Wall between Tor Hill Road and St Efride's Road

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Overview

A retaining wall with double-height vaulted arcade of semi-circular arches, set into the cliff face. Mid-C19. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1420617
Date first listed:: 21-Aug-2014
List Entry Name:: Arcaded Retaining Wall between Tor Hill Road and St Efride's Road

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1420617
Date first listed:: 21-Aug-2014
List Entry Name:: Arcaded Retaining Wall between Tor Hill Road and St Efride's Road
Location Description:: It is located to the rear of Nos. 5, 7, 9 and 11 St Efride’s Road in Torquay, Devon

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

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:: SX9099264367

Summary

A retaining wall with double-height vaulted arcade of semi-circular arches, set into the cliff face. Mid-C19.

Reasons for Designation

The arcaded retaining wall is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural and engineering interest: an unusual and largely intact example of a mid-C19 retaining wall designed in the Italianate style as a double-height arcaded structure to form a prominent feature within the wider landscape; * Historic interest: now set amidst late C19 and mid-C20 housing, it originally formed part of the mid-C19 Lauriston Hall estate and has added interest for the late C19 incorporation of a rockwork in the upper arcade, by Robert Veitch & Sons of Exeter.

History

The arcaded retaining wall to the cliff face of Tor Hill was erected in the mid-C19 to provide a garden terrace for the owners of Lauriston Hall, a villa commissioned by Sir John Theophilus Lee in the 1830s. In the 1880s the upper arcade was adapted to include a rockwork which featured a series of grottoes, caves and a waterfall, and was planted with alpines, ferns and climbers. The rockwork was designed by the landscape gardener, F W Meyer and executed by Robert Veitch & Sons of Exeter. Lauriston Hall was largely destroyed by bombing in 1942 and subsequently demolished. The retaining wall is the only surviving feature of the estate.

Details

A retaining wall with double-height vaulted arcade of semi-circular arches, set into the cliff face. Mid-C19.

MATERIALS: constructed of limestone, with brick and stone dressings.

PLAN: the arcades, which face south-west, form the straight section of the feature at the rear of No. 11 and No. 9 St Efride’s Road. The blind retaining wall then continues to the north-east before curving to the south-east to form another straight section of wall, again facing south-west, to the rear of No. 7 and No. 5 St Efride’s Road. Steps, from the terrace above, provide access to the upper arcade. EXTERIOR: the principal south-west face of the arcade is arranged as two tiers of nine, semi-circular, vaulted arches rising from ground level at the foot of the cliff. There is a stone balustrade to the base of each tier. The upper tier of arches has vermiculated keystones below a corbelled-out cornice. Above, at the ground level of the top of the cliff, is a stone balustrade which includes square piers with pyramidal caps, and vase-shaped balusters. The balustrade continues to the north-east and south-west above a plain limestone retaining wall with a corbelled cornice.

INTERIOR: not inspected (2014) although there is understood to be a room at the right-hand end of the covered walkway of the upper arcade.

Sources

Websites
The Gardeners' Chronicle, accessed from http://www.mocavo.com/The-Gardeners-Chronicle-a-Weekly-Illustrated-Journal-of-Horticulture-and-Allied-Subjects-July-to-December-1887-Volume-2/924419/154
Other
Tormohun Conservation Area Character Appraisal, Torbay Council, 2005,

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.