Engine House at Pendeen Lighthouse is a Grade II listed building in the Cornwall local planning authority area, England. First listed on 12 March 1997. Engine house.

Engine House at Pendeen Lighthouse

WRENN ID
ancient-vestry-gold
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Cornwall
Constituency
St Ives MP: Andrew George (LD)
Country
England
Date first listed
12 March 1997
Type
Engine house
Address
Engine House at Pendeen Lighthouse, St. Just, TR19 7ED
OS grid reference
SW 378 359
Coordinates
50.16504, -5.67203
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Engine House at Pendeen Lighthouse is a single-storey structure built in 1900. It features a square plan and is constructed from rendered rubble with a flat roof, designed to cool water for air engines and compressors. The east elevation, which faces the lighthouse, has a one-light window at the front and a north-facing plank door with an overlight. To the right, there are plank double doors leading to the main block. Both the north and south sides have two 2-light transomed timber windows, with the upper lights angled back from the wall. The west elevation includes a curved bay window. The roof is topped with resonators made of cast iron and copper bellmouths.

Inside, there is an entrance lobby with a quarry-tiled floor, and steel chequer plates cover the pipe ducts. The walls are lined with white glazed tiles up to windowsill height. Notable fixtures include a standby diesel generator by Petter, air receivers, actuating valves, a reducing valve, and a 12-inch siren. The two signal compressor sets, featuring engines by Ruston Hornsby, are particularly significant examples. This engine house is unique in the country for retaining its 12-inch siren along with the associated machinery. It is part of an impressive group of structures at Pendeen, which includes the surrounding walls and the lighthouse itself.

Local climate

Engine House at Pendeen Lighthouse sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 980 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 78% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 97% of listed buildings.

It averages fewer than one freeze-thaw cycle a year. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Pendeen lighthouse and keepers' cottages with courtyard walls Grade II 33 m
  2. Boundary and Garden Walls to Pendeen Lighthouse Grade II 115 m
  3. Skip Shaft Headframe, Geevor Mine (Levant Section) Grade II 1.7 km
  4. Church of St John the Baptist and boundary walls to the churchyard, cemetery and former rectory Grade II 1.7 km
  5. Bridge Over Stream West of Numbers 5 to 12 Grade II 1.7 km
  6. Levant Engine Houses Grade II 1.7 km
  7. Pendeen War Memorial Grade II 1.8 km
  8. Bridge Over Stream Immediately West of Number 14 Grade II 1.8 km
  9. Geevor Mine Wethered Shaft Headgear, at SW 3780 3411 Grade II 1.8 km
  10. 2 Grade II 1.8 km