Facade to Morrab Road; The School of Art and Free Public Library. To follow up on the question of the head of St John being on The School of Art. I had a closer look recently and I see that agendall has already uploaded his picture, so I will not duplicate it.
Penzance School of Art and Library, Morrab Road, Penzance.
The Penzance School of Art, was established in 1852 and held in The Temperance Hotel, Chapel Street.
In 1880 it moved to a new building, designed by Silvanus Trevail, at the top of Morrab road.
(contary to other previous claims, it did not have the red terra cotta decoration at that time,
as a photograph of 1880 clearly shows the building to have a hipped roof, with a fine weathervane atop,
and no decoration to the front lobby.) The square panels were in place at that time, in the main walls.
A new building ( a mirror of the already existing building) was added in 1886
for use as an Art Museum ( designed by Henry White);
it was at this point that the terra cotta decoration was added and the roofs terminated with gabled ends.
In 1893, the building was taken over by Penzance Town Council for use as Public Free Library,
again, to the designs of Henry White.
It was at this point that the stone lettering on the left of the building was added,
and a statue placed on a pedestal between the two parts of the building.
It is assumed this was lost during one of the World Wars.
The Library was provided by the legacy of Octavius Allen Ferris
(of University College London, born 1805, died 1889),
son of William Ferris of Truro [their tannery in Penzance was passed on to Bolitho and Sons].
The two buildings were surrounded by railings and had neat shrubbery gardens.
The present entrance section of the Public Library
was originally built as the Mining and Science Schools, architect Henry White.
It was opened 7th October 1890. It was also used by the Cornish Camera Club, where they had rooms.
Raymond Forward
