Theatre, Penzance

Heritage listing

Details 1. 1498 PENZANCE CHAPEL STREET (North East Side) The Old Penzance Theatre (at rear of Union Hotel) SW 4730 5/33A 8.4.70. II GV 2. The Old Theatre Penzance, constructed around 1787, of stone rubble and a grey slate gable roof. It has a simple rectangular plan. EXTERIOR: The roughly coursed rubble walls have large granite long and short quoins to the corners and around the original openings. The front gable elevation has central double doors with rectangular fanlight, giving access the ground or basement floor and a single timber panelled door to the right with rectangular fanlight, giving access to the first floor via a side staircase. The north elevation, to the left, has several later windows of different styles inserted on the first floor. At ground or basement level, the north side walls have been pierced through with girders inserted to create car parking spaces beneath the building. This area was formerly used for coaches or carriages, and is illustrated on an early sketch of the theatre, now in Harvard University archives. The rear gable has two 12 pain sash windows either side of the chimney on the first floor. The right elevation is built against, although the presence of several blocked openings in the interior of this wall suggest the building was formerly free standing. INTERIOR: Internally the building has been much altered, although it retains the original raked stage with trapdoors and parts (encased and largely hidden) of the galleries and rear galleries. Other fragments of the proscenium and galleries survive within the building although these are not fixed nor in their original position. On the first floor are two rooms with passage and former gallery. Some original internal joinery survives in situ, such as the tongue and groove wainscoting in

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.