The Old Life Boat House And Slip Way

The Old Lifeboat House and Slipway is a lifeboat house and slipway dating to 1895 and 1899, located in Newquay. A plaque on the east front indicates the slipway's construction date of 1895, and the lifeboat house's of 1899, with few alterations since. The building is constructed of rendered stone rubble, with a slurried slate roof featuring crested ridge tiles and gable ends. A brick stack is present on the right side. The plan is rectangular, with double doors at the front gable-end facing the slipway, and an upper room heated by a stack on the right.

The exterior displays a symmetrical front with raking buttresses to the sides. The gable features stepped coped verges and a spike finial. The ground floor has double doors, while the first floor has a corbelled oriel window with a three-light window and a hipped roof. The left side includes two windows with shutters and rusticated surrounds, a single-storey porch with a door between the windows, and an upper ventilation louvre. The right side has three similar windows and a ventilation louvre, along with a brick stack to the left. The rear features rusticated quoins and a single light at the apex of the gable, again with raised stepped coped verges and a spike finial. The interior remains uninspected.

The lifeboat house stands 10 metres west of the head of a slipway, connected by a concrete path with granite curbs. The slipway is steeply inclined, running for at least 40 metres between rock walls, with a concrete surface partly built upon stonework. A continuous central cast-iron channel, 300mm wide and 50mm deep, runs down its centre, showing considerable wear and featuring cleats. Iron cleats, rusted and in places covered by later concrete, are spaced at 1.5-metre intervals along the sides of the slipway. The slipway is considered an integral part of the site and is reputed to be one of the steepest in the country.