Totnes Market Square: From major renovation to patch repairs
An opinion piece
Totnes Market Square (aka Civic Square) was originally landscaped to a design by Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, architect of the Civic Hall opened in 1960 following the fire in 1955 that destroyed the covered market previously on the site. The present paved landscaping was carried out in a renovation scheme by the district council in the 1980s. Twenty-five years later the condition of the square was again starting to deteriorate.
In 2018, after a controversial public consultation (Pulse, 18 December 2018), plans were agreed by the town and district councils to bring some major improvements to the square, including complete resurfacing. After that, not a lot happened, so what asked Mike Craddock (Pulse, 3 December 2023) was going on? Years later, the answer is still not a lot.
True, the town council has carried out some ‘cosmetic’ improvements by replacing clapped-out benches, repainted bollards, improved lighting and commissioned murals under the Civic Hall. Most recently, the dilapidated staircase up to the Civic Hall has had a much-needed renovation but doing this work suggested that the ambitious vision in the 2018 redesign might have been abandoned.
This has now in effect been acknowledged when, after numerous reasons have been given for delaying the improvements, including the pandemic, District Councillor John Birch announced (Press Release 21 August 2025):
“On Monday 8 September we will be starting maintenance work to Totnes Market Square. The work will focus on the accessway used by vehicles to travel between the High Street and South Street. Over the years, the traffic has caused extensive damage to the original paving and previous maintenance has involved damage being filled with either concrete or tarmac.” He added: “We want to keep the square’s character by replacing only these areas of concrete and tarmac with new paving.”
Preserving the square’s character marks a major u-turn from the original facelift proposed in the 2018 consultation. The area either side of the accessway is also heavily patched where paving stones have been removed. Repairing only the accessway will leave about two-thirds of the square in its current patched-up state.
A town with the historic and architectural importance of Totnes should be a reason for civic pride and the Market Square, its principal public space treated with respect.
The long-running failure to do so looks like civic neglect.
I was a Town Councillor in 1995 when the square was renamed Market Square, which of course had been its original name before 1960 when the Civic Hall was built. We renamed it to make sure people respect its 800-year-old function and don’t start thinking about building on it, as SHDC were doing in the 90’s. It could certainly do with another rebuild – but many people were aware at the time that the 80’s design featured cobbles of exactly the wrong shape – truncated inverted pyramids – which would gradually work their way upwards under normal stress and come loose. But who knows the workings of SHDC? They didn’t seem to have much engineering know-how then and another rebuild might well be another waste of money unless real engineers were involved.