IPublic · listed 1950Market BuildingPhoto: Nilfanion · CC BY-SA 4.0
Parish Church of St Mary · Photo: Electric Antiquarian · CC BY-SA 3.0A+History Grade
History of Penzance · Historic England
211 listed buildings, 2 of them Grade I
Historic England counts them inside Penzance’s built-up area, 141 for every 10,000 residents. It also has 2 scheduled monuments. 43% of its homes were built before 1919. We have photos of 14 of its listed buildings and 7 old views of the town. Penzance grades A+ for history: #3 of 35 in Cornwall.
Listed buildings
211
141 per 10,000 residents
Grade I
2
exceptional interest
Grade II*
12
more than special interest
Scheduled monuments
2
1 registered park or garden
Homes built before 1919
43%
typical UK town 15%
In pictures
Penzance in 25 photos and old views
Nearly every Grade I and II* building, photographed, and the town before 1950. Tap a photo to step through them full screen.
Market BuildingGrade I listed
Egyptian HouseGrade I listed
Warehouse Occupied by Courts (Furnishers)Grade II listed
Dry Dock at Penzance ShipyardGrade II listed
Turk's Head InnGrade II listed+20See all photosPhotos from Wikimedia Commons and Geograph, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the building’s page or its official list entry.
Through time
Penzance from 1675 to 1939
An old map and 7 old photos and postcards, in date order. All public domain, made before 1950.
1675
1679
c. 1855
c. 1890
c. 1890
1904
1906
c. 1939Public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server. Each credit opens the image’s page with its full description and history.
The map
Where Penzance’s history is
Every Grade I and II* building, monument and historic park, over the age of each neighbourhood’s homes.
Grade IGrade II*Scheduled monumentPark or garden
Homes built before 1919, by neighbourhoodunder 10%10–25%25–50%50%+
3 of 10neighbourhoods have mostly pre-1919 homes; in the oldest, 92% were built before 1919.
Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.
211 listed buildings by grade
2 Grade I12 Grade II*197 Grade II
Historic England lists buildings in three grades: Grade I for buildings of exceptional interest (about 2.5% of all listed buildings), Grade II* for particularly important buildings of more than special interest (about 5.8%), and Grade II for buildings of special interest (about 91.7%). Listing protects the whole building, inside and out.
Every entry on the National Heritage List for England whose point lies inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary. One list entry can cover a terrace or a group of buildings. Neighbourhood dots: the population-weighted centre of each Census 2021 output area, coloured by its neighbourhood’s (LSOA’s) share of homes built before 1919 (Valuation Office Agency, March 2025).
Grade I
The 2 Grade I listed buildings in Penzance
Buildings of exceptional interest, about 2.5% of all listed buildings. Every one is photographed. Each opens its own page, with the official list entry.
IHouse · listed 1950Egyptian HousePhoto: Jhsteel · CC BY-SA 3.0
Grade II*
The 12 Grade II* listed buildings in Penzance
Particularly important buildings of more than special interest. 9 are photographed.
II*Church · listed 1950St Mary's ChurchOn the list as Parish Church of St MaryPhoto: Electric Antiquarian · CC BY-SA 3.0
II*Church · listed 1950Baptist Church and Attached Schoolroom at RearPhoto: John M · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*House · listed 1969AlverneOn the list as Camelot RestaurantPhoto: Simon Cobb · CC0
II*Church · listed 1974Methodist Church including railingsPhoto: Simon Cobb · CC0
II*House · listed 2003South PierPhoto: Bob Embleton · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*Inns & shops · listed 1950The Union HotelPhoto: Hugh Llewelyn from Keynsham, UK · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*House · listed 1950The VicaragePhoto: Simon Cobb · CC0
II*House · listed 1974Treneere ManorPhoto: Malcolm Kewn · CC BY-SA 2.0
II*House · listed 195053, Chapel StreetPhoto: Simon Cobb · CC0
House · listed 1950Nancealverne House
House · listed 1950Rosecadgehill House
Street furniture · listed 1974West Penwith Rdc Offices Including Railings
Historic streets
Chapel Street has the most listed buildings
Streets by the listed entries with an address on them. One entry can be a whole terrace, so long rows count once.
Chapel Street18 listed · 1 II*
Regent Terrace8 listed
Market Jew Street7 listed
Market Place7 listed
North Parade7 listed
Cornwall Terrace5 listed
Green Market5 listed
Alverton Road4 listed
Morrab Place4 listed
New Street3 listed
Parade Street3 listed
Of the 211 entries, 98 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.
What’s protected
Most of Penzance’s listed buildings are homes
Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.
Houses, terraces & villas163
Public & civic buildings14
Churches, chapels & priories11
Inns, shops & warehouses10
Walls, gates & bridges6
Street furniture4
Memorials, crosses & tombs3
163 entries (77%) are houses, terraces and villas. 11 are churches, chapels and priories.
Buildings are sorted by words in each entry’s name (church, gate, inn, memorial…): the list’s open data has no building type. An entry named only by its address counts as a house.
Grade II
197 Grade II listed buildings
Most listed buildings are in this grade, which covers buildings of special interest. Open any building to read its official list entry.
The first 150 of 197 Grade II listed buildings, A to Z
Abbey Basin Quays and SlipwayAdmiral Benbow RestaurantAlbert PierAlphington House (County Planning Office)Alverne HillAlverton CottageAlverton HouseAlverton ManorAlverton TerraceAlverton TerraceAlverton TerraceAlverton TerraceAlverton TerraceAlverton Terrace Stanley HouseAlverton Terrace TrenarrenAnn Collin Limited Keeler Dispensing OpticiansBandstandBattery and War MemorialBoer War Memorial, Morrab Gardens, PenzanceBoots ChemistBoundary Stone 47m North-West of the Fire StationBoundary Stone in front of No. 8 Chyandour CliffBritish LegionBuriton HouseChapel HouseChurch of St John the BaptistChurch of St PaulChurchyard WallClarence CottageConduit Head in Wall of No 37Cresta Silks LimitedCrown InnCrownleyCustom HouseDavy MonumentDry Dock at Penzance ShipyardFirst and Last InnFormer Coach Sheds and Workshops (Forming Part of Victoria Garage in Bread Street)Former Penzance lifeboat houseFoster HallFountain and Pond WallsGarage Premises Between Nos 5 and 6Garden Walls at Treneere Manor to South West of HouseGlobe InnGodolphin HouseGothic HouseHawk's Farm HouseHepworthsJubilee PoolLondon InnLove Lane FarmhouseLower Larrigan HouseLyscothMasonic HallMorrab Library (Former Morrab House)Nancealverne LodgeNational Lighthouse CentreNo. 29 Including RailingsOutbuildings at Lower Larrigan HousePenhale HousePenrose HousePenzance School of Art and LibraryPremises Adjoining North East of the Masonic HallPremises of Museum of Nautical ArtPublic BuildingsRaised Pavement, Steps and RailingsRedinnick HouseRegent HotelRichmond Wesleyan ChapelRoman Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception of Our LadyRosecadgehill CottageRosevaleScranton HouseSeven Stars Public HouseSt Erbyn's SchoolSt MichaelsStanley Guest HouseStone Cross Immediately to East of MuseumStore at Penzance Shipyard Immediately South of Dry DockThe Abbey HotelThe Abbey WarehouseThe CoombeThe MaldensThe Old Manor HouseThe Old Penzance TheatreThe Star Inn, including No.1 New Street and the former synagogueThe WeethsThe WillowsThe boundary walls with the remains of the Bet Torah and 14 monuments at the Jewish cemetery in PenzanceTredarvah Farm HouseTrevearTrevelyan HouseTrinity House DepotTurk's Head InnWarehouse Occupied by Courts (Furnishers)Wesleyan SchoolWest LodgeWhite HouseWhite Lion HotelYork House1 and 2, Abbey Street1 and 2, Alverton Road1 and 2, Market Jew Street1, North Parade1, Parade Street1-12 Penrose Terrace1-21, Regent Square1-3, Redinnick Place1-4 Alverton Terrace1-4, St Mary's Place1-4, Trewartha Terrace1-5, Clarence Terrace1-5, South Parade1-6, Clarence Place1-7, Morrab Place1-9, Morrab Terrace10 and 10A, Victoria Place10 and 11, Market Place10 and 11, Morrab Place10 and 11, Regent Terrace10, Chapel Street10, North Parade11 and 12, Park Corner11, Chapel Street11, St Clare Street11-15, North Parade12, Market Place12-19, Regent Terrace12A, Morrab Place13 and 14, Cornwall Terrace13 and 14, Market Jew Street13 and 14, Market Place14 and 15, Alverton Road15-17, Cornwall Terrace16-18, Alverton Road17, Chapel Street17-27, North Parade18, Cornwall Terrace18, Market Jew Street18-21, Morrab Place19 and 20, Alverton Road19 and 20, Chapel Street19 and 21, Cornwall Terrace2 K6 Telephone Kiosks Outside Lloyds Bank2 and 3, Clarence Street2, North Parade2-18, Victoria Square2-5, Regent Terrace2-6, Leskinnick Street20, Regent Terrace
Conservation areas
1 conservation area covers 28% of Penzance
Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.
Penzance 196997 ha
97 hain conservation areas, of 341 ha inside the built-up area.
195 of the 211 listed buildings stand in one.
Historic England’s conservation areas layer, supplied by councils (incomplete in places, so a page fact, never graded). Hectares are the part of each area inside the built-up area.
How the list grew
More than half of Penzance’s listed buildings were added in one year, 1974
The year each building now on the list was first listed.
1974 · 1191950 · 391970 · 23
19501960197019801990200020102020
The first 39 entries were listed in 1950, 2 of the 2 Grade I buildings among them. 119 came in 1974, in the national resurvey of the 1970s and 80s. Only 6 have been added in the last 15 years.
Monuments & landscapes
Monuments, parks and gardens
Designations that overlap the town by a tenth of their area or half a hectare.
2 scheduled monuments
Nationally important archaeological sites and monuments, protected by law; work on them needs consent from the Secretary of State, advised by Historic England.
1 registered park or garden
Morrab GardensGrade II
History Grade
Penzance grades A+ for history
Protected heritage and the age of the town’s homes, against all UK towns.
Protected heritage, for its size and in all (232 points, 155 per 10,000 residents)More than 88% of UK towns
Homes built before 1919 (43%)More than 96% of UK towns
Two measures, each ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more, with protected heritage counting twice as much as the age of homes. Protected heritage counts each listed building by its grade (Grade I three points, II* two, II one), each scheduled monument and battlefield two, and each registered park or garden by its grade; it is ranked both per 10,000 residents and as a total, so a village with one fine church doesn’t outrank a historic city. The second measure is the share of homes built before 1919, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records. History is a character grade: it describes the town and isn’t part of the overall grade.
Homes by age
43% of Penzance’s homes were built before 1919
Every home by when it was built, from council tax records, against England & Wales (the dark tick).
41%
Before 1900
2%
1900–18
1.3%
1919–29
10%
1930s
7.4%
1945–54
5.5%
1955–64
7.7%
1965–72
5.6%
1973–82
6.5%
1983–92
3.5%
1993–99
4%
2000–08
1.4%
2009–15
3.7%
2016–25
PenzanceEngland & Wales
41% of homes are Victorian or older, against 16% across England and Wales. The busiest period since was the 1930s, which added 10% of today’s homes.
Valuation Office Agency, council tax stock of properties by build period, 31 March 2025, for the neighbourhoods (LSOAs) that make up the town, split by where their residents live. Homes with no recorded build period (39 here) are left out; 1939–44 is not a period in the data.
Born here
31 notable people born in Penzance before 1900
The 20 best known on one timeline, earliest first.
Henry Ince
Robert Dunkin
Humphry Davy
Joseph Carne
Maria Branwell
Edmund Davy
John Carne
John Davy
Francis Foster Barham
William Colenso
Francis Polkinghorne Pascoe
George Marsden Waterhouse
Thomas Rowe
Leonard Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith
Thomas Bedford Bolitho
William Copeland Borlase
George Thomas Bettany
Herbert Booth
Harold Harvey
Gilbert Hunter Doble
170017501800185019001950
Humphry Davy1778–1829 · British chemist
William Colenso1811–1899 · New Zealand printer, botanist, explorer, missionary and politician (1…
Francis Polkinghorne Pascoe1813–1893 · English entomologist (1813–1893)
Maria Branwell1783–1821 · Mother of the Bronte sisters (1783-1821)
John Davy1790–1868 · British physician and chemist (1790–1868)
George Marsden Waterhouse1824–1906 · Premier of South Australia and Premier of New Zealand (1824-1906)
Leonard Courtney, 1st Baron Courtney of Penwith1832–1918 · British politician (1832–1918)
ED
Edmund Davy1785–1857 · British chemist
Everyone born in Penzance → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.
Towns its size
Penzance has the 52nd most Grade I buildings of 544 towns its size
Places of 9,000–24,000 people outside London, by Grade I listed buildings.
Penzance2
#47 of 544for listed buildings per resident (141 per 10,000). Ludlow, Bridport and Monmouth lead.
51 have more. The typical town its size has 0.
Neighbours
Listed buildings in the places around Penzance
| Town | People | Listed | Grade I | History |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penzance | 14,957 | 211 | 2 | A+ |
| Longrock | 1,983 | 6 | 0 | B+ |
| Newlyn | 3,362 | 45 | 0 | A |
| Marazion | 1,350 | 71 | 0 | A+ |
| Crowlas | 1,054 | 3 | 0 | B− |
| Goldsithney | 1,346 | 7 | 0 | C+ |
| St Erth | 1,128 | 31 | 1 | A |
| Carbis Bay | 3,967 | 6 | 0 | C |
In brief
Penzance in brief
Old houses are part of Penzance’s character: 43% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town. All told, the list holds 211 listed buildings, 2 of them Grade I, including Market Building. For its size, it has more listed heritage than 88% of UK towns. Only 51 of the 544 towns nearest its size have more Grade I buildings.
On Chapel Street alone there are 18 listed buildings. A conservation area has protected part of it since 1969. Most entries on the list, 77%, are houses, terraces and villas. Beyond that, it also has 2 scheduled monuments.
Questions about Penzance’s history
How many listed buildings are there in Penzance?
Historic England lists 211 buildings inside Penzance’s built-up area: 2 Grade I, 12 Grade II* and 197 Grade II.
What are the Grade I listed buildings in Penzance?
2, including Egyptian House and Market Building.
Which street in Penzance has the most listed buildings?
Chapel Street (18), Regent Terrace (8) and Market Jew Street (7) have the most listed entries named by an address. One entry can be a whole terrace.
Are there scheduled monuments in Penzance?
Yes, 2 scheduled monuments, including Market cross and Round called Lescudjack Castle.
How many conservation areas are there in Penzance?
1, covering about 97 hectares of the town. The largest is Penzance.
When were Penzance’s buildings listed?
The first in 1950; the most, 119, in 1974.
Are there old photos of Penzance?
Yes: 7 public-domain photos and postcards from 1675 to 1939, and an old map from 1855, all on this page.
Who was born in Penzance?
Among people born before 1900: Humphry Davy (1778), William Colenso (1811), Francis Polkinghorne Pascoe (1813), Maria Branwell (1783) and John Davy (1790).
How old are the homes in Penzance?
43% of homes were built before 1919 and 55% before 1940, from the Valuation Office Agency’s council tax records (March 2025).
© Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. The National Heritage List for England is the official, up-to-date register of all nationally protected historic buildings and sites in England; check an entry on Historic England’s website before relying on it.
Sources: Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only · Historic England conservation areas (supplied by local planning authorities; October 2026). All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.