The Market Building in

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

situated at the top of Market Jew Street, Penzance.

History

The site of the Market Building was bought from the

Manor of Alverton The Manor of Alverton was a former manorial estate located in the hundred of Penwith, west Cornwall, England, UK. History The first historical details of the manor were recorded in the Domesday book which stated that before the Norman conquest ...

for £34 as one of the first acts of the Corporation of Penzance after

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

granted the town a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

in 1614. The site housed a market building, a guildhall and Penzance's prison. With alterations and repairs, the buildings lasted until their replacement in the 1830s. In

James Neild James Neild (4 June 1744 – 16 February 1814) was an English jeweller and prison reformer. While he was supported by two particular friends, Weeden Butler and John Coakley Lettsom, his efforts were distinct from those of John Howard, and the Qua ...

's survey of prisons, he wrote that the prison in the market building had been replaced in about 1805, but it has been suggested that he was mistaken.

Current building

Design

The Corporation of Penzance organised an architectural competition for the building of a new market building on the site of the original. Although H J Whiting of London won the competition, his design was deemed too expensive for the Corporation (at the time, local councils were subject to increasing Government control by the passing of the 1835 Municipal Corporations Act and it was decided to use a cheaper scheme). The second place design was widely unpopular and so the contract was awarded to

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

architect William Harris instead. Whiting sued for damages when his design was not chosen and was give £300 compensation. Samuel Teulon was also among the unsuccessful architects. The Market Building was designed to

''direct its users attention away from the vulgarity of the streets and the uninspired and often depressingly ugly uniformity of the town''.

Built from

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

, the building is crowned by a lead-covered

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

and octagonal

lantern A lantern is an often portable source of lighting, typically featuring a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle or a wick in oil, and often a battery-powered light in modern timesto make it easier to carry and h ...

which is visible from much of the town, and from neighbouring villages. The eastern end consists of four

ionic columns The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

with a

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

known as

tetrastyle A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...

and overlooks a main thoroughfare (once the A30) of Penzance and a statue of

Humphry Davy Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, (17 December 177829 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for t ...

(erected in 1872).

Construction, opening and use

The foundation stone was laid on 11 July 1836 and the building was opened by the Mayor of Penzance Richard Pearce on the day of Queen Victoria's Coronation, 28 June 1838, though it may have started trading two weeks earlier. The building originally housed a market in the western half of the building and the guildhall in the east. The basement below the guildhall originally contained cells for prisoners, while the first floor was used as a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

from 1867 to 1898. The upper storey of the western end housed the

Corn Exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchange. Such trade was common in towns ...

which also served a dual purpose as a theatre. The building's dome was at one time home to the Penwith Natural History Society. The eastern part of the building remained as the guildhall until St John's Hall ( to the west) was built on

glebe Glebe (; also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s))McGurk 1970, p. 17 is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved ...

land in Alverton and opened in 1867. The Penzance Grammar School (1789–1898) took over the council rooms and remained there until 1898 when it closed. The building's west face was redesigned in 1925 with rounded corners to allow larger vehicles to turn the corner from Market Place and Market Jew Street.

Current state

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the "Big Four (banking), Big Four" clearing house (finance), clearing banks. Lloyds B ...

took over the western half of the building in 1925 when they shortened it by some 15 feet and modified the entrance. The bank bought the building from the Borough of Penzance in 1965 for £35,000. The western half of the building is still occupied by a Lloyds bank and the shop units in the eastern half are vacant. Despite the bank saying it would repair the building in 2014 after the roof began leaking and the interior suffered

water damage Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a s ...

, leaks have persisted and the condition continued to deteriorate. In 2019 in was placed on

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

Heritage at Risk Register An annual ''Heritage at Risk Register'' is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for actio ...

due to plaster decay in the historic interior and timber rot due to damp.

Renovation and repair

In 2020, the Market Building was included in Penzance's bid for funding from the government's Future High Street Fund, though it was noted that it may have to be removed and included in the Towns Fund bid due to feasibility problems. In June 2021, Penzance was guaranteed £21.5m from the Town Deals Fund and a further £10.4m from the Future High Streets Fund. The next month, a pre-application was made for plans to repair the ground floor of the eastern side of the building.

Notes

References

External links

Pastscapes
* {{Coord, 50.118794, -5.536731, display=title 1838 establishments in England Buildings and structures completed in 1838 Grade I listed buildings in Cornwall Grade I listed markets and exchanges Buildings and structures in Penzance Industrial archaeological sites in Cornwall Grade I listed government buildings