Sights in Penzance
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Statue of Humphry Davy
At the top of Market Jew St is a statue to Penzance's most famous son, Humphry Davy (1778-1829), the pioneering 'chemical philosopher', amateur poet and fanatical trout fisherman. Davy was responsible for an astonishing number of scientific advances: the discovery of six new elements (including potassium, sodium and strontium), the invention of the miner's safety lamp, and the use of nitrous oxide (or laughing gas) as a medical anaesthetic.
He also penned reams of amateur poetry and befriended some of the 19th century's best-known Romantic writers, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, although whether it was Davy's amateur verse or his ready supply of chemical narcotics…
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Egyptian House
As with Truro and Falmouth further east, Penzance's wealth was founded on the import-export trade, and most of the town's Georgian and Regency town houses were built for the merchants and sea captains who once plied their trade out of the harbour. The best examples can be seen along Chapel St and Queen St; look out for the extraordinary Egyptian House.
The Egyptian House looks like a bizarre cross between a Georgian town house and an Egyptian sarcophagus and was originally built for a wealthy mineralogist, John Lavin, as a geological museum.
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Penlee House Gallery & Museum
Penzance's historic art gallery displays a fine range of paintings by artists of the Newlyn School (including Stanhope Forbes) and hosts regular exhibitions on Cornwall's art history. Admission is free on Saturday.
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Newlyn Art Gallery
The salty old harbour of Newlyn, on the western edge of Penzance, is known for two things: art and fishing. It's still one of the UK's busiest fishing ports, and there are plenty of shops dotted around the town where you can pick up fresh-cooked lobster, crab and seafood literally straight off the boats. During the 19th century, Newlyn was also the centre of the Newlyn School of artists, a group of figurative painters headed by Stanhope Forbes and his wife Elizabeth. The town's artistic connections live on at this contemporary art gallery.
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Exchange
Housed in Penzance's old telecoms building, this is the sister gallery to the Newlyn Art Gallery. The pulsating light installation outside is by the artist Peter Freeman, and is best seen after dark.
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