Supplied by J W Meek and son This picture was taken from thier roof top in the 1930's. Looking out towards the bay and Princess street just below. Also you can see the construction of the Telephone exchange to the left. Its not possible to see this view from here any more because the exchange is to high.
I think the photo caption should say: ‘In the 1930’s , the view as seen when looking eastwards from the roof of Meeks Furnishings [in Chapel Street opposite the Co-op] into New Street. To the right may be seen the end house of Princes Street with a roof lookout. In the 50s and 60s this house was lived in by the Treneary family. The then new Telephone Exchange was under construction, later to be superseded by one of Penzance’s most ugly of buildings the new exchange in the sixties. Our family as owners of No.1, New St. was finally compensated for being plunged into shadow by the huge structure, now turned for the better into flats and an art gallery called ‘the Exchange’.
The house on the left of the picture is definitely No. 1, New Street. The street name plaque may still be seen on this building though it is now part of the Star Inn since the mid to late 1980s approx. From about 1982 until then it belonged to a firm of solicitors or accountants who sold it, only having used it as a storage place. They had bought it from my Uncle Allan and Aunt Joan Franklin. At that point, my mother, a sitting tenant, moved to Belgravia Street c.1982. No.1, New Street had been owned by the Knight family since 1957 until c. 1976 when relations (the Franklins) had bought it. (trepolpen)
