The Shell House

The Shell House is a house dating from the early to mid 19th century, located on the north side of The Warren in Polperro. It is constructed of stone rubble, with some parts rendered, and features an ornate decorative covering of shells on both the ground and first floors, created by Mr. S Puckey in the 20th century. The house has a slate roof with gable ends and a rendered brick stack on the left-hand gable end.

The original layout is uncertain, but it may have had a two-room plan over a cellar. The building has three storeys, with an entrance on the ground floor and an additional entrance on the first floor accessed by an external staircase. The front facade has a regular arrangement of two windows. The ground floor entrance is located on the right and features a 20th-century door within an open timber porch that has shaped brackets and fascia boards. To the left of the entrance is a large rectangular 20th-century window, and further left is a retaining wall with a staircase leading to the first-floor entrance, which is adorned with a 19th-century cast iron balustrade.

On the first floor, there is a projecting porch on the left that is corbelled out and decorated with shell patterns, with the upper part of the porch glazed and featuring a partially glazed 20th-century door. To the right of the porch are two segmental arched openings with 19th-century four-pane sash windows. The second floor has two similar windows. The front elevation is decorated with various shell patterns, including an illustration of the Eddystone lighthouse, and the shell decoration stops above the first floor. The interior has not been inspected. The Shell House is included for its group value.