Historic Topsham building to be repaired

A project to repair and restore a key piece of Exeter’s maritime history is likely to take a step forward when the city council’s planning committee meets next week.

The council is expected to give itself permission to move on with a project at The Strand in Topsham, repairing a council-owned building that houses the Topsham Museum.

The collection, which also includes tea rooms and a garden, is currently closed while the preliminary stages of the project take place. Work carried out on the building late last year revealed a catalogue of fresh problems, and now scaffolding has gone up around the building in preparation for the next phase.

There will be roof and floor repairs along with work to fix external masonry and walls. A parapet will be rebuilt and twentieth century windows in a sail loft will be replaced. Cement render will be replaced with lime, and modern shutters will also be replaced.

The aim is to repair failing structural elements and replace inappropriate modern additions, conserving the building’s ‘important historic fabric’.

Once work is finished, the building’s appearance from the street will be unchanged.

The building is Grade II listed and inside the Topsham Conservation Area. A report to the planning committee says it is one of a number of high-status merchants’ houses dating from the late seventeenth century or very early eighteenth century on The Strand. It has its own mooring on the Exe.

“The building’s significance lies in the completeness of its survival,” says the report. “The internal decorative plasterwork, thought to date from the eighteenth century, is particularly significant.”

Support for the repair project is widespread, although the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings has some concerns, and says the windows should be repaired rather than replaced.

One supporter wrote: “This necessary restoration work will preserve a much valued building housing an excellent local museum.”