Description

TORQUAY

SX9063 ROUSDOWN ROAD, Chelston
885-1/17/340 (West side)
Melbourne Tower Hotel and Tower Hill
Hotel

GV II

Pair of villas, both in use as hotels. 1870s. Plastered;
natural slate roofs with wrought-iron finials; stacks with
rendered shafts with deep moulded cornices and shaped sunk
panels.
PLAN: Mirror-plan pair, each with front wings, entrances on
the outer returns and rear service wings at right-angles.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and half-basement with 3-storey entrance
towers. Lavish external detail. Each entrance elevation has a
projecting central 3-stage tower with a pyramidal roof; one
window to the left, elevation blind to the right. Deep eaves
with dentil cornice; moulded sill band; platband.
Tower with pilaster strips; round-headed doorway and
round-headed windows with keyblocks to the returns. Projecting
cornice with dentil frieze at first floor level with stucco
pediment over. 2nd stage has paired round-headed windows with
moulded architraves and keyblocks. Triple windows to 3rd stage
of tower with paired pilasters.
To left of the tower one ground- and one first-floor 2-pane
sash. To right of the tower a shallow projecting sash. The
2-window front elevation of each villa has a gabled outer wing
with a 2-storey canted bay. Gable decorated with stucco arch;
bay with brattished balustrading to left and right.
Ground-floor windows square-headed with proud architraves;
first-floor windows round-headed, all glazed with 2-pane
sashes. Shallower 1-bay projection towards centre has
similarly treated windows and hipped roof. Division between
villas marked by pilaster. Tower Hill Hotel, to the right, has
a single-storey flat-roofed addition to left of the entrance
tower.
INTERIOR: Not inspected but likely to retain features of
interest.
A grand typically Torbay design in a prominent position in
Chelston, an unspoiled C19 suburb of Torquay.

Listing NGR: SX9043363641

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26502033

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)