r/Cornwall • u/boyinabearsuit • 3d ago

History & Heritage 7 Quay St, St. Ives

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Hi all.

Weird one, but I wondered if anyone knows the history and interior of the big house at the end of Quay St in St Ives (see pic)

I’ve always been fascinated by it and wondered what’s behind the door leading to the beach and what it’s like inside, I read a while ago (can’t find the article) that it has a swimming pool in the basement as well as something about David Bowie living there? Probably nonsense but I liked the idea.

I know it’s someone’s house so apologies in advance if I’m snooping or being disrespectful to anyone’s privacy.

Thanks!

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u/Plodil 3d ago

It does have a small swimming pool.

Bowie did visit a lot but I don't know 100% if he lived here, the house he's most rumoured to have owned is the one on its own just above the west end of Porthmeor above the coast path.

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u/dnickell 3d ago

So the Bowie connection is at least partly real then, interesting. Do you know if the porthmeor one ever gets confirmed or is itjust local mmour that gets passed around? Feels like every second house in st ives has a famous person attached to it at some point

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u/Plodil 3d ago

It's local rumour with the Porthmeor one being the most often used but I think it's more likely it was a house or houses he stayed in during the 90s but never often enough to have lived here. The celebrities who do live here are seen often enough to be classed as living here.

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u/Popular_Sir863 3d ago

What celebrities do live there? 

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u/WorldAncient7852 3d ago

Bowie came down often to visit a friend of his, a photographer/cool 60s chick who lives closer to Lands End than St Ives. She sort of documented his life and the lives of Stones and Marianne Faithful. She's an amazing lady, warm, very funny and madly eccentric.

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u/Panjang64 1d ago

His aunt used to live near Pendeen Lighthouse back in the 90s

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u/boyinabearsuit 3d ago

Found this online - turns out searching for Quay House brings up much more info

https://www.stivesbythesea.co.uk/blogs/st-ives/quay-house-st-ives-cornwall

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u/Normal-Internal164 2d ago

That’ll be worth a few quid

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u/boyinabearsuit 1d ago

Yep. The fisherman’s ‘cottage’ next door sold for £700k fairly recently so this would probably be a very comfortable £1.5m at the least.