54 And 55, Church Street

A pair of shops dating from the early 19th century, located on Church Street, Falmouth. The exterior is incised stucco on masonry, with a shallow segmental arch design, and features an asbestos slate roof, brick end stacks, and a cast-iron ogee gutter. The building follows a double-depth plan and presents a symmetrical three-window facade. Original hornless sash windows with glazing bars are retained throughout.

The ground floor exhibits a remarkably fine and rare pair of early 19th-century bowed and transomed shop fronts, considered to be of outstanding quality and comparable to similar examples in London and other fashionable provincial towns. These include panelled stall risers, small panes of glass, a moulded entablature with a fascia, and a central pair of doorways with 20th-century doors. At the rear, an original six-panel door with fielded panels is found slightly left of centre, alongside a 16-pane hornless sash window on the ground floor to the right.

The interior of No. 55 has been remodelled in the 20th century to the ground floor and basement; the remainder of the interior was not inspected. The shops represent an extremely fine example of an early 19th-century shop front of national importance.