THOSE familiar with Truro’s shopping offer will doubtless know King Street, with its mix of shops, galleries and banks. At numbers 15 and 16, you’ll find The Fragrance Store and White Stuff. But have you ever wondered what’s happening in the three floors above them?

The answer is: not very much. But that could be about to change, because one of Truro’s largest buildings has been purchased for an undisclosed sum by the Truro Regeneration Company (Regenco), an arm of Truro City Council which has plans to bring it back into usage. Its cavernous spaces and top-floor panorama - “one of the best views of Truro Cathedral you’ll get anywhere in the city” according to town clerk David Rodda - could enjoy a new lease of life after years left vacant.

Through the New Life for City Buildings scheme (NLCB), Regenco has already pumped £1.3-million of Town Deal government funding, specifically for regeneration purposes, into grants to help property owners refurbish empty spaces above commercial units, creating 24 additional residential properties across the city centre. The King Street property is its first major acquisition, and David hopes there will be more to come.

To explore the history of 15 and 16 King Street is to be taken back to the residential growth of Truro and the golden days of high-street retail. Originally the site of lively market stalls, King Street’s rise in prosperity saw the construction of large, elegant homes like these.

Numbers 15 and 16 were once separate 19th-century townhouses with stables, servants’ quarters and outbuildings. However, it looks likely they were knocked into one and extended back towards The Leats with the aim of creating larger, more versatile commercial premises. As early as 1813, the space was occupied by tradesmen including hairdresser, perfumer and wigmaker John Knuckey and sadler William Courtis.

Census records from 1851 show 29-year-old cabinet maker Mary Randall in residence. Mary inherited the business from her late husband, who died in 1850 just one year into their marriage. Her second husband, William James Criddle, took over the company and went into partnership with James Jenkins Smith. A major employer, Criddle & Smith extended the property to join one in St Nicholas Street (now the British Heart Foundation), and were appointed upholsterers to HRH the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII.

Fast-forward to 1966 and the premises were taken over by Westcountry department store Dingles (later House of Fraser); and from 2006, the building was home to Top Shop and Top Man until parent company Arcadia went into administration in 2021.

David unlocks the big wooden door to the right of White Stuff and we head upstairs to the first floor, which still bears the traces of high-street menswear – a fitting room sign here, a till there, social distancing stickers on the floor, even takeaway coffee cups presumably abandoned five years ago. It’s dark – the windows were blocked off at a time when retail stores were boxed in and lit artificially, the outdoors seemingly non-existent.

While evidence suggests Top Shop/Man staff used upper floors as staff rooms and for storage purposes, in recent years the building has been owned by an “institutional landlord” – an international investment company with interests in high streets across the UK, for whom Truro was simply a name on a balance sheet.

“Their focus is on getting a return from their investment,” says David. “What they were getting from the ground floors was sufficient, meaning there was no incentive for them to develop the upper storeys.”

This was just one of several buildings under consideration for purchase and one might wonder why Regenco plumped for one with so many challenges – an enormous space with Grade II listed status, for starters.

“We had money to invest through the NLCB scheme, and looked around the city centre,” David explains. “We ruled out smaller, easier units on the grounds that the private sector would snap them up, meaning we wouldn’t be adding anything to the high street by buying them.

“In contrast, 15/16 King Street was a tough sell. Access is complex, and no one wants to pay business rates on four floors. The building is listed and in a conservation area, and it needs a lot of work – rewiring, plumbing, painting.

“The roof needs renewing and the windows need to be brought back to working order. The current lift, designed to carry furniture, takes up too much space and blocks natural light – it will need to be replaced with something more modern and better suited to passengers.

“We had a choice: we leave the building and it will carry on as it is now, empty and continuing to deteriorate to a point of no return; or we buy it, knowing that the ground-floor businesses will provide us with an income from day one, and that money will be coming into Truro for regeneration purposes rather than to an institutional investor.”

The decision was made to buy. A project manager is due to be appointed, and investment upwards of £2m is anticipated to bring the upper floors back into use, with priorities depending on whether future users are commercial or residential (which will require far more work).

We’ve reached the top floor. Regenco has been advised to keep an original feature of the building, an unusual space encompassed by boxy archways. Through a door is an outside area referred to by David, tongue-in-cheek, as “the gin terrace”. It’s currently swagged by anti-seagull netting, but the promised cathedral view doesn’t disappoint, making it easy to imagine this space as a penthouse apartment.

From here, we can see the backs of other commercial properties. Many of the upper floors are empty; some are being converted into residential properties using NLCB funds, others have dormant planning permission. Others will remain empty for the foreseeable future, but who knows: some might be given the same treatment as 15 and 16 King Street, saving Truro’s architectural heritage.

“It’s challenging,” says David, “but I believe we made the right decision.”