South West

The Cornish Riviera Weekender – Updated 6th July 2017

30 September – 1 October 2017

Saturday 30th September

We’ll start the Saturday morning looking at Newlyn Art Gallery then begin a structured walking tour of Penzance from 11.30am.
Penzance has a remarkable collection of mid-20th century buildings, many dating from a very limited period in the mid to late 1930s, this may be the influence of what was thought of as one the more progressive newly expanded corporations in Cornwall. We’ll explore the output of local architects Colin Drewitt and Geoffrey Bazely and look at the centre of Penzance, with Moderne and Modern shops and commercial buildings by Colin Drewitt and also the more predictable products of 1930s commercial design in what was one of the principal commercial and market towns of Cornwall.
We will also look at (and, hopefully within) the Ritz Cinema – streamlined Moderne outside, Egyptian flamboyance inside (1935 by AH Jones of London), the Portmerion-inspired collage of the Abbey Hotel (H Dalton-Clifford – author of New Houses For Moderate Means and the Country Life book of houses for today – 1957).
We shall visit the seafront Promenade, where, alongside the great jewel of the town, the Jubilee Pool (1935 by the Borough Engineer Capt. F Latham) stands the Yacht Inn (1936) and four white, cubic sea-front houses, all by Colin Drewitt and in contrast, some of the more conservative, Arts and  Crafts inspired buildings being produced at much the same time by his elder brother F.G. Drewitt.

Sunday 1st October

We will tour by coach around Falmouth. We will visit Pill Wood House (1972 Colquhoun & Miller and Su Rogers for her father, Marcus Brumwell), and Gillanglaze (2014 John Pardy of JPA) and look at other innovative houses around Feock.  We also plan to visit the Falmouth National Maritime Museum (2003 MJ Long).
If time and access permit (yet to be confirmed), we shall also visit Tregannick, Sancreed, some miles outside Penzance, a 1936 house by Geoffrey Bazely, then fresh out of Serge Chermayeff’s office, and described by Alan Powers as “one of the best Modern Movement houses in the west of England”, passing en route through some of the 1930s housing estates that earned Penzance an enviable reputation for progressive housing policies.
For more information contact Tony Stokoe –tonystokoe@me.com

Meeting points:
Saturday – Newlyn Art gallery from 10:00am; structured walk starting from Greenmarket, Penzance (about a mile from Newlyn) at 11.30am, including The Exchange and other sites. Lunch in the Yacht Inn (1936 by Colin Drewitt); post-lunch stroll along the Promenade to look at other buildings by Drewitt.
Sunday – coach departs Penzance Railway Station 9.30am to visit Falmouth and Feock, returns there by 4pm.

Prices:
Saturday walking tour with lunch included – £15 for members, £18.00 for non-members.
Sunday coach tour – £30 for members, £35 for non-members.

Both days need to be booked separately. 
Entrance fees to museums etc. are not included.