I have been to the Open Day today. What a delight!
The building is beautiful inside. It has been wonderfully revived - I won't say restored because I am sure it never looked like this. The walls are stripped back to the granite and have been sandblasted and repointed. Light coloured wood everywhere. The floor consists of parts of the original granite setts complete with rust stains, cleverly surrounded by wood flooring, presumably where the old setts were unusable.
The ground floor is a large double height atrium with smaller rooms off for school/ group studies and some lovely displays of archives. The library and research rooms are on the first floor (oh, it was HOT!) and it is wonderful to see the library properly housed instead of the crammed up mess it was in the old Cornish Studies building in the town. A slight concern that it might be noisy as it overlooks the atrium and is not enclosed. The research room is well equipped with tables and computers etc and is enclosed. Outside is well landscaped with lots of seating areas. Tiny tea bar but there is a Tesco next door if you are making a day of it.
For me, the absolute highlight of the day was the Treasures Room. My breath was stopped by the most exquisite church calendar dated 1462. It is in a leather case (original) and is the size of a box of Swan Vestas. It unfolds to over two metres long and every page is decorated in gold and silver, green and red and blue. The writing is as clear as it was when new. I am determined to go back and find out where they got this from, they didn't say!
A few small niggles but all in all, money very well spent on this project and I salute the craftsmen involved in the building work.
OC
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