Description

PAIGNTON

SX8860
1947-1/5/68

PALACE AVENUE (North side)
No.25

GV II

Post office, now in use as shops, offices and music school.
1888 by GS Bridgman, who designed Palace Avenue.

MATERIALS: Snecked local red breccia with some facing in
Bathstone ashlar; red Devon sandstone, Ham Hill and grey
polished granite dressings; hipped slate roof with crested
ridge tiles; stacks with red brick shafts with bracketed
cornices and shaped flue dividers.

PLAN: On a corner site between Palace Avenue and Coverdale
Road with a rounded corner. Double-depth plan with former post
office in a single-storey block at the front onto Palace
Avenue and offices in a 3-storey block behind.

EXTERIOR: Free Baroque style. 3 storeys and single-storey.
2-bay front. The single-storey projection is divided into 4
bays by granite Corinthian pilsters supporting a dentil frieze
below a cornice and balustraded parapet. Each bay has a
round-headed pilastered window with a moulded arch, carved
keyblock and recessed apron with carved roundel. Windows with
high-transomed fixed glazing. Canted entrance bay to the right
has corner pilasters and a pediment with a shield with
mantling.

The 3-storey block behind has cream stone quoins and the 2nd
floor is faced with cream stone ashlar with a foliated
guilloche frieze below a dentil cornice. Moulded string at
2nd-floor sill level with a stone band below decorated with a
Greek key frieze. 2 first-floor canted bay windows with
shouldered stone architraves, a fine dentil frieze below the
cornice and balustraded parpapets. Three 2nd-floor windows,
glazed with 2-pane sashes. The 3-bay right return has one bay
of the single-storey projection to match the others.
Main block has rusticated pilasters to the ground floor and
rusticated quoins to the first. Moulded cornices at first and
second-floor level, the 2nd-floor cornice above a Greek key
frieze. Ground floor has 2-pane sash to the left in a moulded
frame flanked by pilasters with a cornice and sill blocks,
pediment to window above first-floor cornice. 2-light casement
alongside to right has a moulded stone architrave, sill blocks
and cornice; right-hand tripartite window with a pilastered
architrave. 2 first-floor 2-pane sashes with moulded
architraves and segmental-headed pediments on consoles. The
2nd floor has 2-pane sashes alternating with fielded stone
panels.
The rear elevation is also richly-detailed. C20 rear right
brick stair addition.

INTERIOR: Post office section preserves plaster cornices,
although there has been some alteration by partitions. Other
features of interest may survive elsewhere.
A prominent and architecturally rich contribution to the
Palace Avenue development.

This entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 1st April 2016.

Listing NGR: SX8865760715

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26581259

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

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)