Penlee House Gallery

This wonderful bright and airy museum is in a Victorian villa at the heart of beautiful Penlee Gardens in Penzance. It houses an unrivalled collection of work from the famous Newlyn School of painters – the men and women who began arriving here in the 1880s, attracted by the brilliant light of West Cornwall and the chance to work ‘en plein air’ capturing the landscape and coast.

Many of the artists trained in Paris and Antwerp and were drawn by like-minded people to this welcoming Cornish colony. Paintings by a large number of famous names from the Newlyn School are on permanent display here – people like Walter Langley, Stanhope Forbes and Henry Scott Tuke, alongside later artists such as Alfred Munnings and Dame Laura Knight.

Penlee House also has archaeology exhibits, a photography collection and items of social history, many of them related to the town of Penzance.

Adult tickets from £4.50. For more details click here.

We love...

The Orangery Café with its delicious homemade cakes and lunches. In fine weather you can sit outside on the terraces. The lovely gift shop is well worth a visit too with lots of poster art on hand.

Don't miss...

Penlee House is at the heart of a beautiful park, bought by the council in 1888. In 1904 a memorial garden was created to commemorate the dead of the Boer War. Sub-tropical conditions mean lush borders and well-established shrubs.