20 And 20A, Church Street

Nos. 20 and 20a Church Street

These adjoining buildings on a prominent corner site opposite St Mary's Church originated as a late 18th to 19th century townhouse. They were converted into shops and an early photographic studio in the mid-19th century, and continue to serve commercial purposes with residential accommodation above.

The buildings are rendered with a slate-hung parapet and half-hipped slate roof. The shop-front is of carved and moulded timber and cast iron with a modern replacement brick plinth. A timber and glass photographic glass house or oriel window sits above.

The ground floor is subdivided into two shop premises, with a single two-bedroom flat occupying the space above. The staircase is positioned to the east.

No. 20 has a mid-19th century corner shop front on the north and west elevations. A bowed fascia sits over a splayed entrance bay in the north-west angle, with four lights to either side of the doorway featuring basket-arched lights and cast iron barley-twist mullions supported on brick stall rises and timber pilasters with carved decoration and capitals. The consoles are elaborate. The door is glazed with a shouldered arched head and an overlight with carved top rail and transom. A moulded entablature carries a carved frieze including lozenges, rosettes and diapers, with a moulded and carved cornice featuring acanthus leaf motifs.

Above the flat roof of the shop-front is an oriel or glass house with four lights to the north, each containing eight panes, and French doors to both east and west with eight panes each, flanked by sidelights.

No. 20a has an early 20th century double shop-front on the west elevation featuring a splayed central doorway with black and white mosaic tiled floor, slender steel columns and a sloping fascia with modern signage and tall end consoles. The west elevation has three first-floor twelve-pane sash windows. The rear elevation includes a 20th century part-glazed door and irregular fenestration of various periods.

Historic shop and studio fittings have been removed by later alterations. The ground floors now contain two modern shop premises, each with small modern service rooms to the east. The roof appears original, featuring a single queen post truss with evidence that the roof space was formerly plastered for attic accommodation.

The basement contains remnants of earlier building phases: a stone slab floor, remains of a stone spiral staircase, a fireplace with an 18th century grate, another flight of steps, and several blocked openings.

Although the buildings appear substantially to date from the 19th century, their position on a much older and prominent building plot is confirmed by basement remains indicating origins from at least the 18th century.

By the mid-19th century, both properties belonged to Henry Hayman, who among other trades was a photographer. Local trade directories and census returns confirm these buildings were Hayman's photographic rooms from at least 1866 until 1880, where he employed at least four photographer's assistants. The Haymans specialised in portrait photography and sold photographs of Cornish landscapes to the increasing numbers of 19th century tourists. In 1866 Hayman advertised "The New Cabinet Portrait, specimens and albums for the same can be seen at Henry Haymans Photographic rooms, Church Street". By 1880 the business had expanded into the adjacent building, which was used as a pianoforte warehouse on the ground floor with a larger photographic studio on the top floor.

By the early 20th century, Nos. 20 and 20a had become tea rooms and have since undergone various commercial uses.