Redruth Buttermarket

Redruth Buttermarket

A market complex first built in 1825–1826 for Sir Francis Basset, extended in the 1850s, improved and enlarged in the 1870s, and partially rebuilt in the early 21st century after a fire.

The Buttermarket comprises three main elements arranged around a courtyard. The market house stands at the south-east corner on Station Hill. The open courtyard ranges include the lower floors of the Mining Exchange and Wheal Peevor Office on Alma Place. The partially-rebuilt meat market occupies the north-west side of the site, stretching towards Market Strand. All elements are rectangular in plan.

The principal north-west elevation of the market house faces the courtyard. On the ground floor are four semi-circular arches with keystones and a projecting impost band. Three arches are infilled with timber windows above a brick base; one has a 20th-century door. A further window and three arches are obscured by a 1977 extension. The north-east elevation has a quoined, segmental-arched door opening above stone steps, leading to the first floor. The south-east elevation displays four blocked arched windows under a moulded string course and three first-floor windows. A recessed door at the south corner was inserted around 1900 during conversion to a printer's workshop. The building has a slate, hipped roof with terracotta cresting.

The main north-west elevation is of granite ashlar; other elevations are of rubble killas stone with granite quoins. The courtyard ranges are of rubble killas stone with slate and 20th-century corrugated concrete roofs and two brick chimneys. The former meat market's visible outer walls are of rubble killas stone with granite quoins.

The south-west and south-east courtyard ranges are two-storeys. The outer south-west elevation to Fair Meadow car park has a projecting plinth with stone steps at the centre leading up under a brick arch into the market courtyard. The butt-jointed horizontal boarding flanking the steps is probably mid-19th century. The first floor has five original window openings; three retain sash windows and two are blocked, with an additional small 20th-century window. The outer south-east elevation to Station Hill has a carriageway opening at the east end and three first-floor sash windows.

The courtyard-facing elevations of both ranges feature open colonnades on the ground floor with granite columns, fronting a flagstone corridor with 19th-century granite drainage channels. Enclosed market stalls or units line the corridor, most with horizontal timber panelling beneath vertical-pane windows and vertically-boarded timber doors, appearing to be mid-19th century. The upper-floor elevations are continuous with vertically-glazed windows above boarding, divided by full-height chamfered posts into bays of two windows each with four panes. The boarding is mostly 20th-century tongue-and-groove, except weatherboarding above the carriageway in the south-east range. An inscription faces the courtyard above the Station Hill carriageway: "Notice. Any person leaving any empty wagon or cart in the market place will be subject to a fine of 6d before they will be allowed to remove the same." The current lettering appears to be a re-painting but may echo an earlier inscription.

The inward-facing north-west courtyard range has 20th-century vertical boarding between the roof structure wall-plate and column heads. The columns have square, stepped granite pedestals. The three bays at the east end contain on the first floor two two-light windows and two rows of six windows. The easternmost bay has an inserted unit on the ground floor extending into the lower ground floor of the Mining Exchange.

The north-west elevation of the former meat market, beyond the 21st-century shopping arcade, faces Market Strand. It has a central arched opening with granite quoins, a later doorway to the left with similar quoining, and a 21st-century opening to the right. The upper west corner has granite quoins and a pyramidal cap above the parapet; a similar cap appears above the central entrance arch.

Interior: The ground floor of the market house contains five pairs of cast-iron columns supporting encased ceiling beams, with 20th-century subdivisions at the south-west end and a further cast-iron column. The first floor has vertical panelling to the south-east wall and a brick arch in the south-west wall leading into the first floor of the south-east courtyard range. The floor is timber boards.

The ground floor of the south-east and south-west courtyard ranges is largely occupied by market stalls or units divided by vertical timber partitions; some survive in original form, such as units 7 and 10 in the south-west range. Unit 10 at the north end of the south-west range contains a surviving wooden workbench. Two staircases at the north end of the south-west range lead to the flat on the upper floor. The storage room above the carriageway in the south-east range has boarded ceilings.

A double-height north-west range fills the gap between the courtyard and the 21st-century covered shopping arcade. The roof structure comprises queen-post trusses with long diagonal struts on the courtyard side, bridging the wall plate and the top of the courtyard columns. A pointed arch within the north-west wall provides access between the shopping arcade and the north-west courtyard range. To the east is a blocked arch with a late-20th-century staircase built against it leading to the first floor. A small office with late-19th-century decorative partition occupies the north-east corner.

The lower ground floors of the Mining Exchange and the Wheal Peevor Purser's Office were originally open to the courtyard; they are now enclosed and subdivided by partitions of brick, timber and breeze block. The lower ground floor of the Mining Exchange contains one historic granite column, cast-iron columns, historic cobbles and granite floor drains.