Location

St Johns House is a fine, detached and handsome Victorian town house located in the St John and St Paul parish area of Truro, in the southern part of the city’s Conservation Area.

The architecture in this quarter of the city was originally orientated to line the main route towards Falmouth, with buildings of interest dotted along the road, including the Church of St John and the Lander memorial, making this a highly sought after address.

St John’s House was once the parish vicarage and is ideally located to enjoy the city’s treasures; its fine restaurants, the city’s recently revived theatre, the historic shopping centre, its pleasure parks, the farmers’ market, and its magnificent Cathedral. The house is conveniently located for the city’s excellent schools, the region’s main hospital and the area’s beautiful beaches, moors and historic gardens, many of which are within a 30 minutes' drive.

Truro is the Duchy’s capital city, strategically lying at the head of Truro’s tidal rivers, once a thriving, sheltered trading port at the Atlantic gateway. As such it is well connected by land and sea. The mainline railway station has a branch line to Penryn and Falmouth and the main, intercity service to London Paddington from Penzance. Cornwall Airport at Newquay is within 19 miles and has daily return flights to London as well as other domestic and international destinations.

Description

This impressive and grand Grade II listed Victorian family home was originally completed in 1880 and has been beautifully restored and extended over the last ten years, conserving many of its original architectural details. The house is a fine example of Victorian architecture with granite coining, ashlar window frame details and intricate carved gables.

Ground Floor

Inside, the Victorian decoration continues with beautiful stained-glass windows. The grand rooms feature detailed plasterwork including the ceiling mouldings and door frame features.

The building is arranged over three floors, the ground floor reception rooms having high ceilings with bay sash windows, allowing light to flood in, typical of Victorian architecture, designed for the wellbeing of its occupants.

From a leafy, sun filled, east facing arrival court, the house is entered through an impressive, stone arched, oversized front door into an internal porch with a secondary, part glazed arched door inside. The grand entrance hall has oak framed ceilings and Victorian, patterned floor tiles. The hall provides direct access to the study to the left and to what was originally the parlour ahead, now a formal dining room, to a cloakroom and the formal sitting room. To one side is a fine, turning staircase with its original octagonal column balusters and handrails. Under the staircase is a cloak room with traditional sanitary ware and dividing stained glass doors.

The three reception rooms have spectacular fireplaces that add to the grandeur of the house. The study has an open, claret coloured Ashburton marble fireplace housing a wood burning stove, and the cosy, carpeted room is full of light from the dual aspect sash windows. The adjacent, grand formal dining room with stripped pine floorboards also has a feature fireplace, framed in fine mahogany and border tiles over a marble hearth and the room is filled with light from the triple glazed bow sash windows. The deep skirting boards and dado rails edge an artisan finished Lincrusta panel (linseed oil and wood flour) to look like bronze relief panelling in the Art Nouveau style. This feature continues upstairs.

The drawing room has a stunning Ashburton chocolate brown Marble fireplace with double pilasters on either side. This cosy and quiet room overlooks the rear garden and connects to the contemporary living space at the rear.

From the entrance hall an inner door opens onto a linear corridor towards the rear of the house opening up onto the courtyard to the side and a series of spaces including the butler's pantry, the service staircase and the boot room. To the right, through stained glass double doors is the original kitchen, updated with Duchy fitted stripped timber kitchen units, incorporating integral Miele appliances, including a dishwasher, washing machine, tumble drier and full height fridge freezer. The centre piece is a cream, gas powered aga stove creating a warm heart to the house all year around. The flooring is a simplified version of the entrance hall tiling and movement revolves around a central island.

The adjacent boot room houses provides lots of storage space and the new boiler and water tanks.

The former service wing at the rear of the building has been remodelled to create an open plan, contemporary entertainment wing, marrying the existing stone walls with expanses of curved glass and ceiling lanterns. The room opens out onto a pretty, split level garden with a spa pool and gazebo to one side. Your eye is drawn to the colourful bar area and the clever, curved glass wall feature that wraps around curved coral leather banquette seating and a bespoke made retro dining table. A four metre long central island provides ample space for food preparation and serving with a three seater breakfast bar at one end.

This fun room is filled with colour and light that reflect off the soft grey stone tiled floors, contrasting with the ebony schist stone wall framing a bank of gloss black cabinets and feature Miele units.

The worksurfaces are white, adding a contemporary and high-quality finish to the food preparation area and LED lights highlight the kitchen furniture. A Sonos sound system completes this spectacular room.

First Floor

Ascending the grand, turning staircase leads you to the central landing from which you can turn around to view the feature stained glass window and the stunning ceiling coach lamp. To the front of the building are two double bedrooms, one being the principal suite which now occupies three former bedrooms to create an ensuite dressing room and bathroom with freestanding bath and marble lined walk-in shower cubicle. The second bedroom has an ensuite bathroom with a bath and tap, fitted showerhead, with William Morris inspired details. Both rooms have impressive fireplaces and between the two rooms is a walk-in powder room.

A third double bedroom towards the back of the house uses the adjacent family bathroom and separate WC, again with a bath and shower head.

Second floor

Another, smaller, staircase leads up to the second floor bedrooms which are set into the roof space, creating interesting ceiling profiles and beam features. Three double bedrooms and one single bedroom on this floor share a large L-shaped bathroom with a freestanding bath and shower fitting. The sloping ceilings and pretty fireplaces give a feeling of being in the tower of a Scottish castle.


Exterior, garden and garage

The property can be accessed by car at both the front and rear of the property. At the front Of the property is a large area of hardstanding, where at least four cars can park comfortably. At the rear of the property there is a detached, single garage and hard standing providing parking for two cars. The rear garden is entered by a lockable gate in the stone garden wall and a winding brick edged path bordered by large shrubs leads down to the paved terrace at the back of the house.

There is a double, solid pedestrian gate at the side of the house providing a useful and wired connection between the front and the back gardens and the side path is finished in the original Victorian pale beige clay blocks.

Attached to the rear of the garage is a lean-to timber and brick wall greenhouse and the lawn is bordered by Euphorbias, Dicksonia, Cotinus and Magnolias.


Services

The house has mains water, drainage, and electricity supplies as well as gas powered central heating. The rooms are heated by a combination of a wet central heating system with heritage radiators, combined with open fires and woodburning stoves. There is an air circulation system in the roof which keeps the air dry, filtered and moving throughout the house.

The Worcester gas boiler was renewed in 2024.         

FIXTURES AND FITTINGS

Only those mentioned in these sales particulars are included in the sale. All others such as curtains, light fittings, garden ornaments, etc. are specifically excluded but may be available by separate negotiation.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Savills, their clients and any joint agents give notice that:
1. They are not authorised to make or give any representations or warranties in relation to the property either here or elsewhere, either on their own behalf or on behalf of their client or otherwise. They assume no responsibility for any statement that may be made in these particulars. These particulars do not form part of any offer or contract and must not be relied upon as statements or representations of fact.

2. Any areas, measurements or distances are approximate. The text, images and plans are for guidance only and are not necessarily comprehensive. It should not be assumed that the property has all necessary planning, building regulation or other consents and Savills have not tested any services, equipment, or facilities. Purchasers must satisfy themselves by inspection or otherwise.

Directions

Heading south from Truro Centre, Follow Lemon straight up the hill which becomes the Falmouth Road at the Richard Lander memorial. St. Johns House is 200 m on the right-hand side.


Truro City Centre- 0.1
Falmouth- 12
Cornwall Airport (Newquay)- 19
Perranporth beach- 11
The Eden Project- 18 miles
St Ives- 27 miles
Plymouth- 55

(All distances are approximate and in miles)