Couch's House

Couch’s House is a house dating to around 1595, situated in Lansallos Street, Polperro. It is constructed of painted and rendered stone rubble, with a scantle slate roof. The building has a main range with gabled ends, a higher roofed range at its upper end with a splayed corner, and a front projecting cross wing at the lower end. Chimney stacks are visible on the higher gable end, on the rear lateral hall, and to the side of the projecting cross wing. The internal layout is difficult to determine due to lack of inspection, but appears to be roughly L-shaped, with a stack at the higher gable and a lateral stack next to the projecting wing at the lower end.

The asymmetrical front elevation features replacement two-light casement windows with glazing bars. A front projecting cross wing is located on the left, with a higher range to the right. The entrance is positioned in the angle between the two parts, leading into the cross wing. This wing has a rendered porch with a lean-to slate roof, above which is a two-light casement window. To the right of the porch, a single window is positioned asymmetrically, with a two-light casement beneath a timber lintel and another two-light casement above. The gable end of the cross wing has a regular single window range, also with two-light casements beneath timber lintels.

The rear elevation, facing Lansallos Street, is divided into a three-storey range on the left and a two-storey range on the right. Both ranges contain two-light casement windows with glazing bars. The left-hand side features a single window front with an entrance on the right, incorporating a 20th-century low, part-glazed door and a small rectangular window to the left. Above this, there is a two-light casement on the first floor, and within a gabled half-dormer on the second floor. The range to the right has a regular two-window front with two-light casements flanking a lateral chimney stack.

The interior was inaccessible at the time of survey, and an inspection may reveal further details about the plan and historic features. The house was the home of Dr Jonathan Couch (1789-1870), grandfather of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Dr Couch was a renowned Cornish naturalist and ichthyologist who wrote extensively on natural history, including Cornish Fauna (1838, 1841), The History of the Fishes of the British Isles (1862-1865), and Calendar of Natural History Observed at Polperro (1842). His notes were later published by his son, Thomas Quiller Couch, as The History of Polperro Sources in 1871.