The Old Town Hall

FALMOUTH

SW8033SE HIGH STREET 843-1/5/107 (South West side) 10/09/68 No.3 The Old Town Hall

GV II*

Congregational chapel, later the town hall, now a shop. c1710. Painted brick on probable rubble with rusticated stucco quoins, Gibbs surrounds and moulded parapet cornice; asbestos slate and dry slate hipped roof. Double-depth plan including C18 rear wing. Tall single-storey symmetrical 2-window front with central doorway. Round-arched windows with glazing bars and spoked fanlight heads. Wide flat-arched doorway with C20 glazed doors and fanlight; trace of original pediment in plaster above. Rear has at least one C18 sash with thick glazing bars and an overlight with thick glazing bars. INTERIOR has original coved and moulded plaster ceiling with large carved central feature, the centre of which is in deep relief; staircase with reused C18 turned balusters; C18 dado panelling and niche with consoles (hidden by furniture at time of survey); simple wooden chimney-piece with later (C19) iron register grate. HISTORY: 1st built as a Congregational chapel then replaced by a new larger chapel in 1715 when the original building was bought by Martin Lister Killigrew. He presented it to the Corporation who used it as a town hall until replaced by the purpose-built town hall on the Moor (qv). This building is probably the second oldest purpose-built nonconformist chapel in Cornwall, there is one Quaker meeting house in Marazion which predates it and another in Kea of about the same date. (Gilson P: Falmouth in Old Photographs: Falmouth: 1990-: 26).

Listing NGR: SW8060833130