The Town Hall was built in 1850, in a neoclassical style, at a cost of £1,500 by the Joint Stock Company. Over the years it has been used as offices for the local constabulary, a jail for petty criminals, a drill hall for the Devonshire Rifle Corps, a courthouse, a library, dance hall and the offices of Kingsbridge Town Council until their move to Quay House in the 1950s.

The Tower and Clock were added in 1875 by Mr Thomas Peek. The tower is particularly interesting as it is built in a cube shape, but only three of the sides have clock faces. There is an urban myth that says the fourth face was kept blank as it faced West towards the workhouse, meaning the destitute workers would not know the time. However, the truth is far more practical. The blank face has a door in it, reached by a ladder from the roof, in order to give necessary access to the clock mechanism for maintenance. The blank face probably faced west because is not visible from Fore Street and, at the time construction, towards the west there were few buildings, therefore, the clock faces were visible to most people.

Fun Fact!
Did you know the clock mechanism is wound by hand, every week, to keep it working and the pendulum is regularly adjusted to maintain an accurate time? It takes 56 turns of the winder to make the clock run for 7 days, and this task has been done by volunteers since the clock was built 150 years ago.

The clock mechanism is maintained annually and thanks to its high quality Victorian movement, it should be good for hundreds of years.

In 1914, the Town Hall came into the hands of the Feoffees and is currently rented to Merlin Cinemas, who operate three film screens every day.

View from the top of the Town Hall looking down to the Estuary, November 2024

We need your help!

The front façade of the Town Hall, the Tower and the Clock are all in need of extensive repair and modernisation.