Buildings misc.

CLOCK TOWER and THE INSTITUTE / PORTHLEVEN INSTITUTE / BICKFORD-SMITH INSTITUTE
The Institute replaced a previous pub, The Fisherman’s Arms, which had stood on the site since the late 1700s.
This was a thatched building with a cellar and a public ‘long room’ where everything from public meetings to shipwreck savage to religious meetings. It even acted as a makeshift place for shipwreck survivors.

The clocktower had an illuminated face 40 years before electricity arrived in the village and 27 years before
there was any form of street lighting in Porthleven.

In 1972 the Town Council (then Helston) bought the freehold of the Institute including the clocktower and adjacent cottage for £100 from the Hagenbach Family Trust who then owned the Harbour and Dock Company. It was devolved to
Porthleven Town Council in 1985.

CUSTOMS HOUSE

INSTITUTE – see CLOCK TOWER