Old Courthouse, Redruth

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The Old Courthouse, also known as the Old Town Hall and Court House, is a historic granite building on Penryn Street in Redruth, Cornwall, England. It was built in 1850 to house a small‑debts courthouse and was designed by architect Robert Blee in a Neoclassical style. It served as a place for legal proceedings and as a venue for public events; the Redruth Band played there in April 1853.

By the 1870s it was used for monthly County Court meetings for small claims in west Cornwall. In 1873, during the Camborne riots, a trial led to threats against the building, and miners chased the prosecutor down the street. It also functioned as a Wesleyan reform meeting room at that time.

In 1891 the building became the office of solicitor and archaeologist Thurstan Collins Peter, who excavated Carn Brea. After Redruth Rural District Council took over in 1894, he worked as their clerk, still using the courthouse.

When the county court moved to Camborne in 1977, the Old Courthouse became a private members club (originally a gentlemen’s club, later open to women). It still hosts the Redruth and Camborne Branch of the Royal Naval Association.

Architecturally, the building is two storeys, three bays wide, made of granite with a slate roof. The central bay has a recessed porch with two Tuscan columns and a decorative frieze; there are sash windows on the ground and first floors, and a roof frieze with triglyphs. Inside, the original staircase leads to the former courtroom on the first floor. It was designated a Grade II listed building in 1978.