The Palacio Lounge is a former municipal building on The Moor in Falmouth, Cornwall, a town in England. The structure, which currently operates as a restaurant and bar, is a Grade II listed building.[1]
| Palacio Lounge | |
|---|---|
 The building in 2019 | |
| Location | The Moor, Falmouth, Cornwall, England |
| Coordinates | 50°09′21″N 5°04′19″W / 50.1557°N 5.0720°W |
| Built | 1866 |
| Architect | Charles Reeves and Lewis George Butcher |
| Architectural style(s) | Italianate style |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Former town hall and attached former fire station |
| Designated | 23 January 1973 |
| Reference no. | 1269980 |
  Shown in Cornwall | |
History
editThe elected corporation of Falmouth was based at what is now the Old Town Hall until the mid-1860s. They then decided that they required larger premises, and so commissioned a new building on The Moor. The site they selected, on the corner of Webber Street and Killigrew Street, was formerly occupied by Allen's Brewery.[2]
Construction work on the new building began in 1864.[3] It was designed by Charles Reeves and Lewis George Butcher in the Italianate style, built by Olver & Sons in rubble masonry with a stucco finish at a cost of £4,000, and was completed in 1866.[4][5] It was also used as a courthouse, and contained a county court office, registrar's office, high bailiff's office and apartments for judges. In 1895, the building was extended to the northwest, with the new section serving as a fire station.[1] However, in 1896, the corporation moved to new premises in the Municipal Buildings.[6]
The building continued to serve as the local magistrates' court until 1990.[7] It was then converted into the Rumours nightclub, shortly thereafter,[8][9] with modifications which were later described as "not particularly sympathetic". In 2015, it was restored at a cost of £600,000 and converted into a restaurant and bar named the Palacio Lounge.[10][11][12]
The Palacio Lounge featured in the novel, Troubled Blood, in the Cormoran Strike series, written by J. K. Rowling and published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith in 2020.[13][14][15] Scenes for the television adaptation of the same book were filmed there and released as Strike Series 5 Troubled Blood in 2022.[16][17][18]
Architecture
editThe design involves a main frontage which is five bays wide and almost symmetrical, except that the rightmost bay is wider to incorporate the main entrance, designed to be viewed from Killigrew Street. The curved doorway is flanked by Tuscan columns and has a royal coat of arms in the cornice above. The ground floor is rusticated. The central section of three bays, which is slightly projected forward and features a squat attic storey, contains, at ground floor level, a segmental headed window with voussoirs and a keystone in the middle bay, and segmental headed doorways with voussoirs and keystones in the bays on either side. On the first floor, the central section is fenestrated by round headed windows with keystones and ogee-shaped hood moulds and, on the attic floor, it is fenestrated by small rectangular windows. The two-storey end bays are fenestrated by segmental headed windows on both floors. At roof level, the central section is surmounted by eaves supported by brackets, while the end bays are surmounted by modillioned cornices. The fire station section is also five bays wide and fenestrated in a similar style.[1]
Internally, some original features survive, including many of the windows, a cantilevered stone staircase, and a canopy in the old magistrates' court.[1][10] The building was grade II listed in 1973.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e Historic England. "Former town hall and attached former fire station (1269980)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
- ^ "Walk around Falmouth". The Packet. 1 August 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
- ^ Gay, Susan E. (1903). Old Falmouth. Headley Brothers. p. 235. ISBN 978-1-4710-4716-9.
- ^ "Kelly's Directory of Cornwall". 1906. p. 99.
- ^ "Important dates in Falmouth's History" (PDF). Falmouth.co.uk. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
- ^ "Falmouth Art Gallery and Library". The Victorian Web. Archived from the original on 30 June 2021. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
- ^ "No licence: fined £20". West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser. 19 July 1990. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
A man who pleaded guilty at Falmouth Magistrates Court...
(last case reported in the local newspapers) - ^ "End of an era in Falmouth". Minewarfare & Clearance Diving Officers' Association. 28 February 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
- ^ "Tributes paid after landlady Pat Harding of Rumours Wine Bar in Falmouth passes away". Cornwall Live. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
- ^ a b "Bar and cafe plan submitted for old Remedies Nightclub". Falmouth Packet. 14 November 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
- ^ "New Falmouth Lounge aims for May launch". The Falmouth Packet. 14 February 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2024.
- ^ Dale, Helen (25 May 2015). "Thursday opening for Falmouth's Palacio Lounge". The Falmouth Packet. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
- ^ Galbraith, Robert (2020). Troubled Blood. Little Brown Book Group. ISBN 978-0751579963.
- ^ "JK Rowling Robert Galbraith new book Troubled Blood features Cornwall". The Falmouth Packet. 18 September 2020. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
- ^ "JK Rowling's new bestseller features Falmouth's Palacio Lounge and The Moor". Falmouth Nub News. 16 September 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
- ^ "Where is Strike: Troubled Blood filmed?". Good to know. 12 December 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
- ^ "Strike, JK Rowling TV detective series, filmed in Falmouth". The Falmouth Packet. 10 March 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
- ^ "J K Rowling private investigator BBC series Strike returns". The Falmouth Packet. 4 December 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2024.