The building was always called Brixham Town Hall and was designed by George Bridgman, the same local architect who designed the Palace Theatre, Paignton, It was officially opened on 1st October 1886, with a build cost of £3,000.
On the ground floor, the current Function Room used to be the Magistrate's Court, and where Brixham Does Care offices and shop are was the entrance to the original Pannier Market, with the old entrance now restored and updated. The Scala Hall started life as the town's Fish Market and a Pannier Market and became a silent cinema, until 1934.
On the first floor, over the Magistrate’s Court, were the offices for the Harbour Commissioners.
Above the Pannier Market and Scala Hall was a large upper hall, used as a Drill Hall, for training local soldiers for the many Victorian wars around the world. It was later converted into a theatre and dance hall. The floor was reinforced for the busy dances, explaining the presence of pillars in the Brixham Does Care offices and the Scala Hall below
It was later used for public meetings, concerts and theatre gang shows, as well as the local amateur drama group’s performances. Nowadays it is Brixham Theatre, offering a varied programme of professional, amateur and cinema shows.
There used to be stackable canvas chairs, with iron frames, which were removed to hold dances and for hall hirings. Originally the Theatre was said to seat 800! It now seats 250 in refurbished seating.
Further information on Brixham Theatre's history can be found at
https://www.brixhamtheatre.org.uk/brixham-theatre-history-0
Entry Name: Brixham Town Hall & Market Hall
Listing Date: 18 October 1993
Grade: II
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1298263
English Heritage Legacy ID: 383695
Town hall and market hall. 1886. By GS Bridgman of Torquay.
Squared and coursed, rough-faced Devonian limestone with yellow-brick and Bath stone dressings.
Slated roofs, that to left hipped. Yellow-brick chimney on rear wall.
Plan: main body of building consists of the market hall (now sub-divided) with a theatre above it. This lies gable-end on to New Road. To its left is an office-range with main entrance and staircase. The Market Street front to right has a short projection at each end. That at the front is rounded; that at the rear, which is part of a cross-range running behind the Market Hall/Theatre, is square. At right-angles to the cross-range, and built in the same style, are the public toilets. Italianate Classical style.(These are now part of the Brixham Does Care offices).
Exterior: 2 storeys (toilets 1 storey). 7 windows wide. Market Hall is 3 windows wide. Round-arched doorway in centre of ground storey with moulded archivolt springing from moulded imposts, the archivolt with incised inscription BRIXHAM MARKET; fanlight with glazing bars forming a circle and 2 semi-circles. Above it a tall round-arched window with moulded and fluted imposts and keystone; stone-mullioned, with 3 round-headed lights below and a large round light with radial bars above. On the base of the window is incised MARKET HALL.
Above the window is a moulded cornice surmounted by a gable feature containing a blind round opening and flanked by pedestals carrying battlement-like blocks. At the apex of the gable is a tall, moulded metal finial.
The outer windows are round-arched, those in the ground storey with moulded archivolts and imposts, those above with hoodmoulds and fluted keystones; the ground-storey windows have in the upper part 2 round-headed lights with a round light at the top. Above the second-storey windows, which are considerably shorter than that in the centre, are entablatures with tall brick parapets.
Main entrance is round-arched with 4 attached shafts at each side. Flanking it are pilasters supporting paired, fluted brackets, which in turn carry an entablature and parapet.
The ground-storey windows to left of it are round-arched with moulded imposts and archivolts; sashes, the upper ones 2-paned. Upper-storey windows have 2-paned wood casements and transom-lights; flat chamfered lintels supported by moulded capitals, the brick jambs forming notional pilasters. Deep, flat eaves-cornice. Ornate iron finial. The rounded projection to right of building is similar in character.
The Market Street front is plainer, with segmental or round brick arches to windows and doorways. Boxed eaves-cornice.
Both projections have ornate iron finials.
INTERIOR: main staircase is of wood in early Georgian style; narrow open well with turned balusters having square necking-pieces. Theatre has arch-braced roof-trusses.
(Pike JR: Brixham, Torbay: a bibliographical guide: Torbay: 1974-: 4; King J: Plan of the Watering Place at Brixham: 1781-; 25in OS Map of Brixham (1st ed): 1864-: SHEET 128:2).