Description

PENRYN

SW7834SW MARKET STREET
580-1/5/117 The Town Hall, Museum and attached
28/01/49 walls and railings
(Formerly Listed as:
The Town Hall, Court House and
Market Hall)

GV II*

Market hall and later town clock and town lock-up. C17,
extended and remodelled 1839. Original building local rubble
with granite dressings to close-spaced ground-floor openings
with C17 arcades of basket arches; town clock is granite
ashlar with moulded cornices, pediments to 2nd stage; square
3rd stage, domed lead roof with weather vane over octagonal
clock stage; slightly bowed stuccoed east end with end
pilasters, moulded architraves, moulded 1st-floor sill string
and moulded entablature to parapet; steep dry slate roof
semi-conical at east end.
Long rectangular plan extended at either end in C19. Town Hall
is 2 storeys with basements on the Lower Market Street side;
both street fronts have 7-window range to 1st floor over
arcade of 12 basket arches. C20 sashes with glazing bars to
1st floor in openings enlarged in C18 or C19; C20 casements
with vertical glazing bars to ground floor openings.
C19 clock tower entrance front has central distyle Tuscan
porch; 4-panel door, patterned overlight; blind window over
and blind windows to narrow flanking 2-storey bays; 2nd stage
has deep hollow-chamfered round-arched window with glazing
bars and fanlight head; datestone above.
Beam ends of ground floor to side walls now capped with slate
but formerly visible and slightly projecting and obviously
sawn back, were possibly originally corbelled out to carry a
pentice roof to shelter the arcades. Extra bays in similar
style at east end are possible reused salvaged features from
former ends.
INTERIOR: Town Hall has early/mid C18 plaster barrel-vaulted
ceiling with dentilled cornice, dado panelling and rostrum of
similar date with 2 flights of stairs with turned balusters
and ramped handrails. Earlier pegged roof structure above
ceiling. West end has studded door and latticed and boarded
screen of former cell (others removed c1978). East end has mid
C19 staircase with turned newel posts.
Museum in ground floor of original building, has chamfered oak
or elm cross beams supporting very thick floorboards (not
visible).
Council chamber at east end has tented ceiling. Panelled doors
to most openings. The evidence contained in this building
suggests that it was built very much as a working market house
and was adapted as a town hall in the C18 when the barrel
ceiling was inserted.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: attached granite coped retaining walls at
either end with granite steps down from the level of Higher
Market Street to Lower Market Street; wrought-iron railings.
HISTORY: the Town Hall is on the site of the pre-Reformation
Church of St Mary, and for Cornwall is an exceptionally
well-preserved example of this type of building.

Listing NGR: SW7848834403

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• The Town Hall, Museum And Attached Walls And Railings at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17533919

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Surrey (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living