Torbay Deco Hotel and other news (6 November 2025)
A former Torbay hotel, updates on Bath fire station, Plymouth Civic Centre and more. Plus an absolute unit of a play sculpture in Poole.
We’re into the off season here in the West Country which means two things. Firstly, storms roll in off the Atlantic and make it much harder to get photos with strong blue skies. And secondly, building work starts now the holidaymakers are gone.1 So this week sees updates on several renovation or demolition projects.
More will follow next week, when I write up my field notes from Weston-Super-Mare. And I’ve started on the November deep dive: my first on a building that has been repurposed.
Torbay Deco for sale
What was once the Queen’s Hotel (unknown architect, 1937) has been split into retail units and flats since the turn of this century. One part of the ground floor, that has been both Dinosaur Land and the Torquay Military Museum, is now on the market with Bettesworths.
Given the building is not listed, a lot of the frontage is surprising intact (or replaced like for like). The main change is the punching in of entrances when the ground floor was converted to retail. The Museum closed earlier this year due to “repeated flooding” so the £250,000 price tag might not be the bargain it seems.
Preserving Our Seaside Art Deco Heritage: Four Perspectives
Since we’re on seaside Deco, here’s a quick plug for an event next week. The Art Deco society have joined up with the Seaside Heritage Network to hold an online seminar of four talks about preserving seaside Deco on 12 November. The speakers are Dr Kathryn Ferry, Allan Brodie, Karen Averby and Nigel Wilson. Full details and tickets are available here.
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My deep dive on Our Lady of the Portal and St Piran (1973) is now FREE to read. I really enjoyed this one, as it involved discovering a fierce and bloody-minded woman’s life.
My deep dive into Tinside Lido (1935) is now available for paying subscribers. This included a great chat with the team at the Lido, who kindly let me tour the site now the pool is closed for the season.
Bath’s Deco Fire Station to go
Bath’s Fire Station (Molly Taylor and Alfred Taylor, 1939) will not be listed, after a decision by DCMS. The C20 Society has raised concerns that this decision is part of a wider pattern of DCMS ignoring Historic England’s advice on listings. The plan to demolish it and rebuild will be decided at the Bath and North East Somerset planning committee on 19 November with work due to start this winter.
Bath is rightly proud of its UNESCO World Heritage status: hopefully it can retain the other pockets of C20 modernism that snuck in even if it has had to destroy one 1930s building.
Plymouth Civic Centre consultation opens
Plymouth’s Grade II Civic Centre (Jellicoe, Ballentyne & Coleridge, 1961) is a regular in these round-ups, and is on my list for a deeper dive. The pre-planning consultation on its renovation is now live, and open until 1 December 2025. I’m not sure why the flythrough is silent, but here it is.
If you are in Plymouth, there are in-person events happening over the next few weeks. If you are not in Plymouth, there’s the online consultation. It’s a tad frustrating that the information is in PDF pages that cannot be read aloud by accessibility technology as instantly some people in the community will be excluded from taking part in the consultation.
In brief
Brutalist buy back on track
The Amulet (Terry Hopegood et al, 1975) went dark in 2011 after a series of unfortunate events. The Shepton Mallet community group seeking to buy back Francis Showering’s gift to the town are a step closer to their goal. They’ve raised £115,000 in community investment which means they can seek grants for the further £600,000 by August 2027.
(Quite how a gift to a town ended up in private ownership - and where all that lead went - is still a mystery to me.)
Mowlem
Down on the Dorset coast, the Mowlem theatre (unknown, 1967) in Swanage has raised enough funds to replace their flat roof. Fundraising continues until 13 November 2025 and any additional funds will go towards other repairs and improvements to the fabric of the building. The roof repair will be as soon as possible this autumn, as those Atlantic winter storms are on their way.
Hungry hungry hippo
Peter Hand’s charming 1969 wooden play sculptures are now on display in Poole Museum. Originally they were part of the play area of the Arndale Centre. Look at this absolute unit!
Hand was a lecturer at Bournemouth College of Art and was responsible not only for Poole’s playful beasts but also Aylesbury’s ducks, Southend’s crustaceans, Wood Green’s toads and Brent Cross’s caterpillars. He also created Gorgo for the cult 1961 film of the same name. (Source: Peter Hand obituary).
Bunker to batcave
Also from BCP council is word that another WW2 defensive structure has been converted to a batcave. Unlike the stunning Fort Henry bunker (see 26 February 2025), this is the more basic hexagonal pillbox.
If you know of an event or news item you think I should know about, you can contact me on Bluesky.
Also, I’m starting to plan my 2026 deep dives. If you have a building you think would be a good topic, please let me know. I’m aware I’ve not done anything in Dorset yet.
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But not on cob buildings: those can only be worked on during the drier months. Don’t ask me how I know. ↩
A journey around modernist buildings in the West Country.