3 and 5, Higher Market Street

This is a town house, originally comprising numbers 3 and 5 Higher Market Street, Penryn, dating back to the 17th century. It was substantially refronted in the late 18th century and remodelled in the mid-19th century. The left side of the front is faced with painted granite ashlar, while the rest of the front is rendered with stucco on timber studwork. The rear includes slatehanging within a courtyard, and the roofs are covered in asbestos slate (on the left, number 3) and scantle slate (on the right). A significant feature is the virtually complete ridge of 17th-century crested clay ridge tiles. The building has a modillion eaves cornice and a cast-iron ogee gutter on number 3.

The building's plan consists of a single-depth arrangement plus a short wing to the rear left, and a deeper 17th-century wing at an angle to the rear right, which runs parallel at the rear. The front is two storeys high, with a three-bay, three-window arrangement. The central bay features a round-arched sash window, flanked by canted Venetian sashes, all with moulded architraves. The windows have mid-19th century hornless sashes from which the glazing bars have been removed. The ground floor has an old slate-roofed hood over the central opening, which was originally a through-passage, flanked by two late-19th-century shop fronts. The shop fronts have panelled and top-glazed doors with overlights, the overlight on number 3 being louvred, and the overlight on number 5 having two panes. The projecting shop windows of number 5 include sidelights, with a moulded cornice and quadrant heads to the surviving mullions.

The rear courtyard elevation of the rear wing of number 5 features a 17th-century wooden mullioned window with ovolo mouldings on the inside, a later central horizontal-sliding light, and a pair of late-18th-century horizontal-sliding sashes with thick glazing bars, along with a similar two-light casement. Internally, number 5 retains 17th-century features, including a chamfered lintel above the mullioned window. A chamfered fireplace is present in the chamber above, with the left-hand jamb reset. The roof structure exhibits lap-dovetail collars and a large double fireplace in the rear room contains a complete stone oven with ashlar sides, and a doorway between the fireplaces connecting to a former large inserted oven. Rough-hewn beams in the same room are likely from the 17th or early 18th century. There are also some 18th-century two-pane doors, old floor structure, and a muntin-and-plank partition on the left of an early to mid-19th-century staircase, which has an additional flight leading to the attics. The front chamber includes mid-19th-century plaster ceiling cornices and other decorative features.