Description

HAYLE PHILLACK
SW 5638-5738
9/147 Riviere House
27.6.1984
GV II
House. 1791. Built for John Edwards, the manager of The Cornish Copper
Company. Stuccoed entrance front, slatehanging to garden front, otherwise
killas and granite rubble with granite dressings and copper slag blocks to basement and to circa 1800 extension. Hipped grouted scantle slate roofs with wide bracketted eaves there is a tradition that the roof was originally
copper. Cast-iron ogee gutters. Brick chimneys over the front wall, left and original rear wall, left and right.
Plan: Rectangular double depth plan plus 2-room-plan service wing. or offices added to rear circa 1800. Central entrance hall leading to service stair at
rear and main stair hall behind the right hand room (probably originally a study); reception rooms to garden front on left and original kitchen behind
main stair hall.
Exterior: 3-storeys over cellar. Symmetrical 3-window north east front with central doorway. Granite ashlar plinth; stucco eaves cornice to bracketted
eaves soffit. Original 6-panel door and fanlight. C19 distyle Tuscan porch
with original entablature but columns replaced C20. Tall window opening to
ground and first floors, shorter windows to second floor. Window openings
left and right of doorway are blind. Original 12-pane sash over doorway,
horned replacement above. Most windows of the house are original hornless
sashes with glazing bars. Symmetrical 3 window south-east garden front has
all its original sashes and is completely slate-hung. North-west elevation
has tall central stair sash over a cellar entrance. Right of the cellar
entrance is a canted bay window with polygonal roof. Rear is a lower 2-storey
3 window front with central doorway and pair of hipped roofs with service
stair window of original house set back between. Copper slag blocks to front
and left, slatehanging to right-hand side. Mostly original sashes.
Interior: Virtually complete with most of its original features including:
stair with moulded handrail running over square moulded newel cap (possibly
later rectangular balusters); panelled doors; panelled window shutters;
moulded ceiling cornices and some old chimney pieces.
At the time when John Edwards occupied Riviere House there is a recorded
incident of when Davies Gilbert (of Tredrea, St Erth q.v.) took the young
Humphry Davy to the house, where he saw for the first time, a well equipped laboratory including apparatus which he had previously seen only in
engravings. Davy expressed his "tumultuous delight" and worked an air pump"
with the simplicity and joy of a child engaged in the examination of a new
and favourite toy". The next resident of Riviere House was Joseph Carne,
F.R.S. (see Carne tomb, Phillack, q.v.).
Sources: Old Cornwall article Vol. IX No 3 Autumn - 1980, by Brian Sullivan.
Riviere House was in early C20 the home of Compton McKenzie.

Listing NGR: SW5624038097

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26597046

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

• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)