Looe Town on PhotoFile Cornwall - Images and Information

Photographs taken 2016 (with noted exceptions)

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Looe town is full of some very characterful buildings. It is a town of two halves. Bustling East Looe is the main town now, and West Looe is the more sedate of the two, with scenic views out along the harbourside road round to Hannafore, and the residential area of West Looe overlooking a pebbly beach, and a nature-loving rockpool hunter's paradise, with views out over Looe Island.

The name "Looe" is thought to have originated in connection with "loch", "lough" or lake, where a tidal pool of water formed where the two East Looe and West Looe rivers met. The name Loo (or Lo) also originally applied only to the town on the east side of the river, and West Looe as now, was formerly known as Porthbyhan, derived from "small harbour". A mixed political scene evolved, with multiple Members of Parliament sent to Westminster from separate Boroughs either side of the river, until they were disenfranchised along with other rotten boroughs in 1832. The following photographs centre on East Looe, otherwise just known as "Looe".

The Old Mill (an old tide mill) above the bridge in Millpool
(this mill was previously a Grist Mill - or Corn Mill - and then laterly a Bone Mill for fertilizer)

Looe Town - busy even the quieter winter months
(The Golden Guinea Restaurant is so named after £10,000 worth of golden guineas were found in a cupboard after the death
of the Mayor and historian of Looe at the time, Thomas Bond, in 1837 - some have said from piracy or smuggling!)

View over the town with St Mary's Church with its short tower in the centre

St Mary's Church

The Old Guildhall and Gaol, now the town Museum

The Old Guildhall and Gaol (note the pillory now part of the porch!)

The new Guildhall in Fore Street

The "Back Streets" and Other Places

The "Back Streets" can be found between the seafront and the town centre, bounded largely east and west by the church and the river. I have heard them referred to as "The Shambles" much as in York, but I have not been able to corroborate this. They are in fact, a delightful set of streets that are much overlooked and never seen by the casual town visitor, and in reality, they show Looe's back streets much as they have always been since over a century and more ago. If you take away the more modern trimmings and well-kept tidiness, it is not hard to imagine them as they once were - they are well worth a wander and explore for those of a socially historically minded disposition. Quite one of Looe's little gems.