In ‘Buildings of England,’ Pevsner writes: ‘Tavistock is one of the most interesting and attractive of Devon’s inland towns. The distinctive character of its spacious centre beside the River Tavy, with its picturesque grouping of low castellated buildings in grey-green Hurdwick stone, is the legacy of its two successive landowners: the Benedictine Abbey around which the town grew, and the Russell family who acquired the monastic estates after the Dissolution and remodelled the town in the nineteenth century around the abbey remains.’

The nineteenth century reconstruction has bequeathed a sense of continuity in each building, yet one of re-interpretation which reflects the different periods of Victorian architecture. As examples, the Town Hall displays Gothic revival features and the Bedford Hotel some Tudor features. The buildings in Drake Road are in Scottish baronial style while Greek revival is evident in the Ward and Chowen office building as well as between Market Street and North Street. Hurdwick stone and granite have been used for all the major buildings (Town Hall, Guildhall, Pannier Market, Parish Church, Catholic Church and Bedford Hotel) and castellated parapets appear as a repeated feature (Fitzford Gate, Betsy Grimbal’s Tower and elsewhere).

In the main, houses of all types are rendered and whitewashed, although some have walls which are slate hung. The Duke of Bedford cottages make an interesting exception; the early ones in Dolvin Road were built in brick but, when all available supplies were used to line new sewers, rubble-stone was used in the later cottages. As model housing for the labouring classes, they were left unrendered and unpainted, possibly as a romantic interpretation of the rural idyll. More recently, a large number have had their walls rendered and/or painted.