Description

PAIGNTON

SX8961 MARINE DRIVE
1947-1/4/62 (East side)
13/03/51 Redcliffe Hotel

II

House, 1855-65 with an earlier core, for Robert Smith, a
retired Indian engineer; contractor, Tozer of Paignton
(Tully). Converted to hotel in 1903, contractor Dart and
Pollard of Paignton (plaque in entrance hall). Various C20
alterations and additions. Smith's building in Gothick style
with Indian influence.
MATERIALS: Roughcast with stuccoed detail; roof and stacks of
original build concealed by parapets.
PLAN: On the sea front. Approximate T-shaped plan. No obvious
trace of the pre-1853 house, converted by Smith. Smith's
building, although somewhat obcsured by later accretions,
consisted of a rotunda facing E out to sea with, according to
Pevsner, 3 added wings, for picture gallery, conservatory and
billiard room, and servants' quarters. Originally there was a
tunnel, destroyed in a storm in 1867, leading to a plunge bath
on the beach below. Only the N wing is still identifiable (on
the W side) as Smith's building. The W wing was thoroughly
recast in c1902 and has been extended W. The S wing has also
been altered. The 1986 addition is not included in the
listing.
EXTERIOR: 3-storey rotunda; 2-storey wings; W wing 3 storeys.
East elevation, facing the sea consists of the rotunda with a
4-bay front, flanked by a 5:2 window wing to the left (S) and
a 2:6-window front to the right (N). The rotunda has a
corbelled parapet with ogival merlons and an inner parapet
behind with flattened spear-shaped merlons and seimi-circular
embrasures. Rotunda crowned by an octagon with a copper tent
roof with ball finial and weathervane. Platband at first-floor
level. The east front has a 2-tier canted bay in the centre
and to the left; single-storey canted bays to left and right
of centre.
Ground floor has round-headed windows (C20 glazing with timber
bars) in ogival frames with curly ogee hoodmoulds with a star
at the apex. Canted bays have plain parapets. Recessed crosses
in the front wall contain painted reliefs of thistles and
apples in roundels. First-floor windows similar with spear
motifs at the apex of the hoodmoulds. Central canted bay has a
cast-iron balcony on brackets with diagonal braces and central
decorated roundels. Parapet may originally have been decorated
with pineapples (these survive on the left-hand bay window).
Wall between windows decorated with Maltese crosses. 2nd-floor
windows smaller but simialr: wall surface decorated with
shields. Parapet on moulded corbels, the merlons decorated
with incised crosses. To left of rotunda, a flight of curving
steps up to a first-floor entrance.
The left-hand wing, with a plain parapet, is in a stripped
down version of the style. The right-hand wing appears to be
completely C20 on the seaward front, but to the rear (W) there
is a 5-bay elevation that is obviously Smith's with a parapet
with ogival merlons and 2 octagonal turrets at the N end with
spear-shaped battlementing. Ground-floor windows with ogival
hoodmoulds and first-floor windows with shallow roughcast
architraves with imitation keyblocks.
The 3-storey and attic W wing has a mansard roof; coved eaves:
ogee-headed attic dormer and windows with fancy stuccoed
architraves of a flame-like design. The N side has seven
2nd-floor oriels on curly ogival arches with pendants.
Unsuitable late C20 hotel porch across angle between rotunda
and W wing.
INTERIOR: Partially inspected. The ground-floor room in the
rotunda retains its original plaster cornices and ceiling
roses, quite delicate but of conventional design. First-floor
room above said to retain similar detail. Original fireplaces
may be concealed behind later plaster. c1903 stair with carved
figures rising above the hand rail. Other features of interest
may survive elsewhere.
HISTORY: Smith died in 1873. In 1877 the house was bought by
Paris Singer (Oldway Mansion qv). In 1902 it was sold and
altered as a hotel. The West Country Studies Library, Exeter,
holds a printed souvenir of the hotel, c1910, which records
that decoration was by Coverdale and Co. of No.15, Palace
Avenue, Paignton . Photographs show symmetrical low wings
flanking the main block.
Although very altered on the margins, the central core of the
building is particularly interesting for its unusual design
and details and the building makes an important contribution
to the sea front at this end of Paignton.
(Hotel Redcliffe, Souvenir and Tariff: 1910-; Tully P: Peter
Tully's Pictures of Paignton, Part II: 1992-: 17).

Listing NGR: SX8948761333

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Redcliffe Hotel at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26489827

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

• 
  Harrow on the Hill: A photographic portrayal of listed buildings and structures (Historic Buildings Picture Guides)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Period Property Manual (New Ed)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)