Riviere House

Riviere House is a house of 1791, built for John Edwards, the manager of The Cornish Copper Company. The front facing the road is stuccoed, while the garden front is slate-hung. The rest of the house is built of killas and granite rubble with granite dressings, and incorporates copper slag blocks in the basement and a circa 1800 extension. It has hipped roofs covered in scantle slate, with wide, bracketed eaves; a tradition suggests the roof was originally copper. Cast-iron ogee gutters run along the roofline, and brick chimneys rise above the front wall and original rear wall.

The house follows a rectangular plan, with a double-depth layout and a two-room-plan service wing or offices added to the rear around 1800. A central entrance hall leads to a service staircase at the rear and a main stair hall behind the room on the right. There are reception rooms facing the garden on the left, and the original kitchen is located behind the main stair hall.

The house is three storeys high, including a cellar. The symmetrical, three-window north-east front has a central doorway. It features a granite ashlar plinth and a stucco eaves cornice to the bracketed eaves soffit. The original six-panel door is topped with a fanlight. A C19 distyle Tuscan porch is present, although the columns were replaced in the 20th century. The tall window openings on the ground and first floors are shorter on the second floor, with blind openings on either side of the doorway. The window above the doorway retains its original 12-pane sashes, although those elsewhere have been replaced with hornless sashes with glazing bars. The symmetrical, three-window south-east garden front retains all its original sashes and is entirely slate-hung. The north-west elevation has a tall central stair sash over a cellar entrance, with a canted bay window with a polygonal roof to the right of the cellar entrance. The rear elevation is a lower, two-storey, three-window front with a central doorway and a pair of hipped roofs. The original house's service stair window is set back between the roofs. Copper slag blocks are visible on the front and left side, with slatehanging to the right-hand side.

The interior remains virtually complete, with numerous original features, including a staircase with a moulded handrail and a square moulded newel cap (although the balusters are possibly later rectangular), panelled doors, panelled window shutters, moulded ceiling cornices, and some old chimney pieces. Historical records relate that Davies Gilbert took the young Humphry Davy to the house, where he saw a well-equipped laboratory for the first time, including apparatus previously seen only in engravings, and "worked an air pump" with childlike delight. A later resident was Joseph Carne, F.R.S. In the early 20th century, Riviere House was the home of Compton McKenzie.