Penzance School of Art and Library

Penzance School of Art and Library

This is an art school originally built in 1880–1881, designed by Silvanus Trevail and constructed by James Julian & Sons of Truro. It was remodelled and extended twice by architect Henry White FRIBA: first in 1886–1887 to provide a museum, and again in 1889 to add a science school. The building has also received mid-20th-century additions and later 20th-century alterations.

The structure is constructed of dressed granite with dressed granite quoin-work to the slightly projecting gabled bays. The rear windows of the Science School are finished with brick arches. Roofs throughout are covered in Cornish slate set with crested ridge tiles. Windows and other fittings are of timber construction. The lobbies to each hall are paved with encaustic floor tiles.

The combined building comprises two halls with an adjacent two-storey Science School building, residential accommodation and additional studios to the rear of the School of Art. A single-storey flat-roofed lobby stands at the front of the School of Art and the 1886–1887 range.

The principal elevation displays mixed English Domestic Revival styles. The 1886 scheme to the central and right bays incorporated the original 1880 School of Art façade on the right bay and a Science School façade to the left. Two projecting gables linked by a central blind screen with marginal flanking screens characterise the 1886 elevation. Both gables feature tall mullioned windows topped with coped and bracketed gables finished with ball finials. Central oculi are embellished with decorative terracotta panels below. Carved lettering on the gable friezes identifies each hall's function: "FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY" to the left and "SCHOOL OF ART 80" to the right. The projecting ground-floor lobby, canted at the south end, is topped with a cartouche enriched with terracotta laurels. Inset Bath stone plaques flank the first-floor windows; one bears the thistle, rose and shamrock emblem of the Department of Art, and the other shows the head of John the Baptist, the insignia of the Borough. Both plaques are in poor condition. Cast-iron rainwater goods run in the wall behind the cartouche. Each lobby contains two sets of panelled double-leaf doors with leaded stained-glass fanlights. Signage above the right-hand doors reads "PENZANCE SCHOOL OF ART".

The Science School, attached to the left (south), has a snecked stone façade designed to blend with adjoining terraced houses of similar date. It features a central canted bay, partially slate-hung, with neat stone dressings and terracotta detailing to the ground-floor openings either side. The gable end contains a terracotta panel inscribed "SCIENCE SCHOOL".

The flanking north elevation comprises three bays defined by seven buttresses with two and three-light mullion and transom windows between them. The rear elevation consists of a small former domestic range and additional classrooms or studios, largely rendered in concrete or clad with metal. Red brick arches finish the rear ground-floor window openings of the Science School.

Internally, the hall interiors are relatively plain, both featuring generous upper-level glazing appropriate to their studio and museum functions. The School of Art hall contains timber wainscoting, panelled doors, fitted cupboards and sinks, and pine floorboards. The timber roof structure has principal rafters with slender chamfers and a single tier of stop-chamfered purlins, braced with steel ties. The former museum and library hall has a deep coffered ceiling with a full-length lantern above, ceiling vents and a strainer arch with finials. The lantern contains clerestorey windows, and large windows occupy each end elevation. A former doorway between the two halls at the west end has been sealed. The internal wall to the Science School has been largely removed at ground-floor level and a lift inserted. A mid to late-20th-century cantilevered stair stands by the Science School front door, and some late-20th-century reference library fittings and modern partitions remain at both levels. To the rear of the School of Art hall are further studios and an office. The Life Drawing Studio has a double-raked roof and timber floorboards. Timber stairs with balusters and turned newel posts descend to lower ground-floor level, where there is pottery, a kiln room, clay store and other storage areas. A boiler room to the rear of the School of Art within the 1880 building has accommodation or a studio above that was not inspected.

Two cast-iron and granite electric street lamps stand on the chequered-tile forecourt, one in front of the library doors and one in front of the School of Art doors.