Palacio Lounge

The 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.{{cite news|url=https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/718918.walk-around-falmouth/ |title=Walk around Falmouth |date=1 August 2008|newspaper=The Packet| access-date=8 June 2024}}

Construction work on the new building began in 1864.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=1euSAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA235 |title= Old Falmouth |first= Susan E.|last= Gay|year= 1903|page=235|publisher=Headley Brothers|isbn= 978-1-4710-4716-9 }} 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.{{cite web|url= https://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/digital/api/collection/p16445coll4/id/265572/download |title=Kelly's Directory of Cornwall|page=99|year=1906}}{{cite web|url=https://www.falmouthharbour.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/FH_ImportantDates.pdf |title=Important dates in Falmouth's History|publisher=Falmouth.co.uk| access-date=8 June 2024}} 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. However, in 1896, the corporation moved to new premises in the Municipal Buildings.{{cite web|url= https://victorianweb.org/art/institutions/falmouth.html |title= Falmouth Art Gallery and Library|publisher=The Victorian Web| access-date=9 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630043154/https://victorianweb.org/art/institutions/falmouth.html|archive-date=30 June 2021}}

The building continued to serve as the local magistrates' court until 1990.{{cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003586/19900719/181/0013 |title=No licence: fined £20|newspaper=West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser|date=19 July 1990| access-date=8 June 2024|quote=A man who pleaded guilty at Falmouth Magistrates Court...}} (last case reported in the local newspapers) It was then converted into the Rumours nightclub, shortly thereafter,{{cite news|url= https://www.mcdoa.org.uk/News_Archive_53.htm |title=End of an era in Falmouth|date=28 February 2016|newspaper= Minewarfare & Clearance Diving Officers' Association| access-date=8 June 2024}}{{cite news|url= https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/tributes-paid-after-landlady-pat-2064474 |title= Tributes paid after landlady Pat Harding of Rumours Wine Bar in Falmouth passes away|date=2 October 2018|newspaper=Cornwall Live| access-date=8 June 2024}} 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.{{cite news |title=Bar and cafe plan submitted for old Remedies Nightclub |url=https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/11601282.bar-and-cafe-plan-submitted-for-old-remedies-nightclub/ |access-date=9 June 2024 |work=Falmouth Packet |date=14 November 2014}}{{cite news|url=https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/11793154.new-falmouth-lounge-aims-for-may-launch/ |title=New Falmouth Lounge aims for May launch |date=14 February 2015|work=The Falmouth Packet |access-date=10 June 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Dale |first1=Helen |title=Thursday opening for Falmouth's Palacio Lounge |url=https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/12970267.thursday-opening-for-falmouths-palacio-lounge/ |access-date=9 June 2024 |work=The Falmouth Packet |date=25 May 2015}}

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.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=bYXQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT51 |title=Troubled Blood|first= Robert|last= Galbraith |year= 2020|publisher=Little Brown Book Group|isbn=978-0751579963}}{{cite news|url=https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/18731733.jk-rowling-robert-galbraith-new-book-troubled-blood-features-cornwall/ |title=JK Rowling Robert Galbraith new book Troubled Blood features Cornwall|date= 18 September 2020| work=The Falmouth Packet | access-date=8 June 2024}}{{cite news|url= https://falmouth.nub.news/news/local-news/jk-rowling39s-new-bestseller-features-falmouth39s-palacio-lounge-and-the-moor |title= JK Rowling's new bestseller features Falmouth's Palacio Lounge and The Moor|date=16 September 2021|newspaper=Falmouth Nub News| access-date=8 June 2024}} Scenes for the television adaptation of the same book were filmed there and released as Strike Series 5 Troubled Blood in 2022.{{cite web|url=https://www.goodto.com/entertainment/strike-troubled-blood-filmed-locations |title=Where is Strike: Troubled Blood filmed?|date=12 December 2022 |publisher=Good to know| access-date=8 June 2024}}{{cite news|url= https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/19984090.strike-jk-rowling-tv-detective-series-filmed-falmouth/ |title= Strike, JK Rowling TV detective series, filmed in Falmouth|date= 10 March 2022| work=The Falmouth Packet | access-date=8 June 2024}}{{cite web|url= https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/23168912.j-k-rowling-private-investigator-bbc-series-strike-returns/ |title= J K Rowling private investigator BBC series Strike returns |date=4 December 2022| work=The Falmouth Packet | access-date=8 June 2024}}

The 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.

Internally, some original features survive, including many of the windows, a cantilevered stone staircase, and a canopy in the old magistrates' court. The building was grade II listed in 1973.

{{reflist}}

• {{official website|https://thelounges.co.uk/palacio/}}

Category:City and town halls in Cornwall

Category:Buildings and structures in Falmouth, Cornwall

Category:Government buildings completed in 1866

Category:Grade II listed buildings in Cornwall

Category:Grade II listed government buildings