The stannery town of Penzance is more of solid, middle of the road, type of dowager, in comparison to the fashionable thirty something of St Ives.
Yet explore and you will find a rewarding companion in the sleepy granite streets. Streets that still echo with memories a whisper of the Medieval town, the shades of the seafaring pirates and smugglers and the wrapped in the solid dignity of a former stannary town shaped by the Cornish Tin Industry.
Explore the streets of Penzance
Penzance is one of the early destinations along the Penwith Tour that explores West Cornwall.
Mention Penzance and “The Pirates of Penzance” come to mind! Indeed the Barbary Pirates were still snatching the good citizens of Penzance well into the seventeenth Century! The historic Chapel Street area is a wonderrful reassuringly Pirate free introduction to Penzance these days though!
Chapel Street
Park on the old harbour – but don’t take the pedestrian crossing into the modern shopping precinct. Instead walk to the slipway beside Penzance dry dock and enter Chapel Street, the original main street from Medieval times. There is an eclectic mix of architecture to admire.
Here the time worn granite pavements clamber steadily up the hill from the harbour. Streets that to this day they conceal a labyrinth of smugglers tunnels leading back to teh harbour.
Stop to explore The Admiral Benbow, filled with ships artefacts gathered from the sea by a former landlord and displayed over five floors. The Admiral Benbow had its own smugglers gang The Benbow Brandy Men and they must have known John Carter the head of the Prussia Cove smugglers just across the bay who was often troubled by the excise men from Penzance. Once when his good were seized by the Penzance excise men he went and reclaimed them in dead of night because “he had his customers orders to fulfill!” They knew it was him because Honest John only took what was his from the wharehouse. A few steps away the atmospheric Turks Head waits and each has their own smugglers tunnels leading back down to the sea.
News of Nelson’s death, at the Battle of Trafalgar, was announced in the assembly rooms at the Union Hotel. Local fishermen broght back the news when they met HMS Pickle on her way to Falmouth
Market Jew Street
Turn right at the top of Chapel Street for a great view down over Market Jew street – a late medieval extension to Penzance, with imposing terraces accesses on the higher side by narrow granite steps set at regular intervals, to encourage pedestrians to sprint out of the way of the occasional passing car. At the top of Market Jew streets with views out across the low lying land around Mounts bay a statue of Humphrey Day presides backed by an impressive domed building built on the site of the former Corn Exchange. This most famous son of Penzance – inventor of Laughing Gas, the Miner’s safety lamp amongst so many other things was a former president of The Royal Society.
You’ll find a sign post with directions just outside of Lloyds bank behind Lyodds Bank or retrace your steps up the hill and turn right into Causeway Head
Causeway Head
The town people would have originally walked up through Causeway head for their water but these days expect to find a selection of small independent shops climbing up through this pedestrian precinct.
Look out for Mounts Bay Trading a labyrinth of Cookware, eastern artifacts, craft goods and clothes from the “labels” on the left and contemporary Lighthouse Gallery further up the hill.
Morrab road
Look out for the brown signs for “Penlee house” this will bring you to Morrab Road, where the broad road and fine old houses speak of another era and on the right hand side you will find Penlee House, set in an elegant garden, with a permanent display of Penzance and Newlyn School artists plus carefully chosen ever-changing exhibitions.
Morrab Gardens
Walk down to the bottom to explore the peaceful lushness of Morrab Gardens a sub tropical oasis set between town and sea.
Penzance Harbours and Promenade
Penzance harbour
The first tidal harbour conceals the deeper, working harbours beyond. So do cross the Ross Bridge and explore the Albert Pier and lighthouse.
In the mornings and evenings the Scillonian docks here after plying to and from The Isles of Scilly.
Several pleasure boats have their offices just beside the Ross Bridge – why not book a fishing, bird watching or wild life cruise with Marine Discovery or The Mermaid
Penzance Promenade
Beyond the harbour the Penzance Promenade stretches towards Newlyn, still redolent of the era of fashionable sea side holidays. Look out for the Art Deco Lido – Jubilee Pool.
I hope you’ve enjoyed a taste of exploring old Penzance – just get away from the tourist routes and you will find fine Georgian Squares relics of Penzance’s heyday when Tin Mining boomed and she was a major Stannary Town; scratch a little deeper and the smugglers and pirates fade into the shadows of her streets and the silky depths of the sea lapping her harbours.
