Fotos

The Pier House Hotel and Restaurant in St Austell Cornwall is situated on the picturesque harbour of Charlestown with stunning views of the port and coastline of St Austell bay. It has been a hotel since 1920 and now incorporates the Harbourside Inn Public House since 2004.
The Pier House Hotel and Restaurant in St Austell Cornwall, (originally called Charlestown Hotel) was built in 1794 and was originally two farm cottages. It became a farmhouse after the Rashleigh Arms was built in 1851. Then the occupants at the farm started taking in paying guests as farming prosperity declined before 1914-1918 war until the farm once again became a hotel.
Being in a prominent position the Hotel takes an active part in the activities as well as the day to day life in Charlestown for locals and visitors alike who come from all over the world as well as locally from within Cornwall.
Charlestown is a Georgian port remaining relatively unspoilt and undeveloped reflecting how many West Country ports and fishing coves looked prior to development being one of the finest late 18th and early 19th century industrial harbour sites in the country. Built for Charles Rashleigh, the port represents a rare example of a mineral port with it's own defences and is one of the best preserved china clay and copper ore ports of it's period anywhere in the world which is why it is now being protected by WORLD HERITAGE STATUS.
By 1867 Charlestown had a respectable population. Sailors were also catered for at houses of ill repute known to this day as "eleven doors". Smuggling was at it's peak between 1700 and 1850. Men known as "free traders" supplied every item. They would drop brandy kegs over the side to be recovered later (this was known as "saving the crop"). At the beginning of the 18th century china clay was found in Cornwall. The roads were inadequate and the railways non-existent until the latter half of the 19th century. So with the construction of the Charlestown harbour by Charles Rashleigh it became the only shipping outlet for the St Austell area.