This unusual house is a rare and noble survivor of a style that enjoyed a vogue after Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt in 1798. It dates from about 1835 and the front elevation is very similar to that of the former Egyptian Hall in Picadilly, designed by P. F. Robinson. Robinson or Foulston of Plymouth are the most likely candidates for its design, though there is no evidence to support the claim of either.

It was built for John Lanvin as a museum and geological repository. When we acquired it in 1968, its colossal façade, with lotus bud capitals and enrichments of Coade stone, concealed two small granite houses above shops, solid and with a pleasant rear elevation, but very decrepit inside. During our work to the front, we reconstructed these as three compact apartments, the highest of which has a view through a small window of Mounts Bay and St Michael’s Mount, over the chimney pots of the town.

Why was there a geological shop here? Although picked over by Victorians (doubtless including Mr Lanvin) the beaches at Penzance still hold every kind of pebble, from quartz to chalcedony. You will find yourself at the bustling heart of Penzance. accessible by train as well as road and a handsome town where the artistic pulse of the late nineteenth-century colony of artists known as the Newlyn School still beats stronglyBeyond it lies that hard old peninsular in which, at places like Chysauster and the Botallack mine, can be found moving evidence of human labour, over an immense span of time.

View our history sheet for this Landmark.

Sleeps: 4