History of Church Street

• King Charles the Martyr Church was dedicated in 1662, one of the few new churches consecrated in Cornwall during the Restoration period
• Land for the church was gifted by Sir Peter Killigrew, a member of the founding family of Falmouth
• Church Street developed as a key commercial route during the Packet Ship era (roughly 1688 to the mid-19th century), when Falmouth was one of Britain’s most important mail packet ports
• The Cornish Naval Bank (later the Cornish Bank) opened in Church Street in 1806, reflecting the town’s significant maritime wealth
• The former Post Office at No. 26 is an 18th-century listed building, remodelled in 1867 to accommodate increased telegraph traffic
• The Subscription Rooms at No. 53 opened in 1826, offering subscribing members and visitors a place to read newspapers, smoke, and play billiards
• Around 1914 the Subscription Rooms became the Falmouth Club, which later relocated to new premises in Western Terrace (now the Falmouth Sports Club); the building subsequently served for many years as Bratts, a well-known fabrics and linens retailer
• The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society was founded in 1833 and has been based in Church Street ever since, becoming one of the most significant cultural and scientific institutions in the south-west
• The Royal Hotel, at the north end of Church Street near Fish Strand Hill and Somercourt, was one of the street’s prominent Victorian landmarks
• Several buildings along the street are said to have cellars once used for storing smuggled goods, a tradition common across Falmouth’s mercantile past
• Snows Court, demolished in 1912 to become the St George’s Hall (the second largest hall in the country at the time). Seriously damaged by fire, it reopened as the St George’s Arcade in 1960