To highlight its dedication to the continued success of Choral Scholarships, Truro Cathedral is putting a welcome pack together for the new scholars this year. Being somewhat of a fixture around these parts, not only accepting invitations to stay in the choir but also to work in the office, I am obviously ideally placed to write a more... vernacular welcome. There'll be some images alongside the text in the official documentation as well. It's nice to have my name in print again!
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As part of preparing this welcome pack, I was invited to
write a short introduction to Truro and its surroundings – not only was I
choral scholar for two years but now I’m one of the Lay Vicars. Sadly, this was all they got...
The terms of the job and services themselves are pretty
obvious, but what about the rest of the time?
Truro isn’t exactly the biggest Cathedral City in the world, but there’s
more than enough going on not only here, but around the rest of Cornwall to
help you enjoy your time between all the services, concerts and outreach
activities planned for the year.
Orientation and other practicalities
Stood on the Cathedral gate, the Scholary is in an ideal
location to access Truro. The train
station is at most 15 minutes by foot, while the bus stops on Boscawen Street and
the station on Lemon Quay are less than a 5 minute walk, with a taxi rank in
front of Coinage Hall. Surely one of the
first things you’ll want to do is get the kitchen kitted out with at least the
essentials, milk, tea, sugar and maybe breakfast.
Even though it’s the closest shop to the
house, the Co-Op is just a bit more expensive than it is convenient half the
time. There’s a Tesco just the other
side of Lemon Quay, a Sainsbury’s and Aldi up past the Train station, and ASDA
and Lidl in Penryn, on the way to Falmouth.
There’s plenty of choice for an individual shop, and it might even be
worth clubbing together and ordering online, especially if nobody drives. The Pannier Market is a great place to go for
a good butchers and local veg, with plenty of other market stalls too, like
clothes repair, a cobbler, and a record shop.
On the Town
There’s certainly more to life than making sure you come in on
budget for your groceries though. Truro
is packed with Restaurants and Cafes lining up to take your stipend away. There are two curry houses within seconds of
the Cathedral itself, while further into town is Sam’s in The City on Duke
Street, serving some of the finest seafood, steaks and burgers available. Chantek, on New Bridge Street, serves superb
Asian fusion cuisine, with Shanghai Lounge and the Mandarin Garden providing a
wholly Chinese experience. If you’re
looking for American inspiration in your restaurants, look no further than
Mustard and Rye on Calenick Street, with their speciality ‘Nuclear Hot Wings’,
or the HUBBOX in the old chapel on Kenwyn Street (opposite Burger King) with
its menu of handmade burgers, hotdogs and even a smoked Brisket. Discount codes for places like Pizza Express
or ASK aren’t hard to come by either, so it shouldn’t break the bank.
There’s plenty of drinking fare to be had as well. While it might not be awash with clubs or
stay open quite as late as larger cities, Truro’s full of Bars and Pubs. Vertigo has live DJs Thursday to Saturday
nights and The Old Grammar School serves tapas 6-9pm Monday to Saturday, both
of which are on St. Mary’s Street; even
the HUBBOX serves cocktails till late (well...late for here) on the weekends. Try Dowr, the local J. D. Wetherspoons
establishment has improved over the years as well, and The Old Alehouse, at the
end of Quay Street, is the Gentlemen’s usual port of call of a Sunday evening. Bunters Bar, further down Kenwyn Street show
sport during the evenings, and Zafiros and Vanilla on the Duke Street corner
have a more relaxed bar feel to them.
The Britannia Inn and White Hart aren’t exactly choir pubs either;
probably best to stick to the Alehouse for beer brewed in the city bounds, or
try the City Inn up the top of Pydar Street and ask for their ‘large serving’.
Or just stay in.
If you like film, head up to The Plaza, just up the hill on
Lemon Street. While they honour Orange
Wednesday codes, think about going on a Tuesday instead; Men’s rehearsal won’t
finish until 7pm (or half past nine, if you accept the invitation to join St.
Mary’s Singers) on a Wednesday, and The Plaza do all tickets for a fiver on a
Tuesday, no matter what time or film.
There’s also live Theatre, Opera and Ballet broadcast by satellite from
the ROH, RSC and the National Theatre, and the odd appearance put in by Mark
Kermode, all of which are worth booking ahead for if you’re interested.
When your Parents come to visit
When your parents come and visit, make them take you
somewhere nice, and importantly, out of Truro.
Restaurants like Hooked, on Tabernacle Street, or Saffron, on Quay
Street are really lovely places a bit more upmarket than some of the others I
mentioned earlier, but their visit is also a prime chance to get out and around
into the Cornish countryside and visit other towns. St. Ives is accessible by train as well (head
for Penzance and change at St. Erth), full of antique shops and art galleries
including the TATE, Penzance itself full of curio shops like Steckfensters to
visit before going down the road to Marazion and St. Michael’s Mount, the Eden
Project, brewery tours of Skinners in Truro and St. Austell Brewery in St.
Austell, Mevagissey, boat trips down the Fal...
Speaking of Falmouth, there’s the National Maritime Museum and its own
vibrant scene of restaurants and bistros.
Oh, and not forgetting the Cornish Camels on their farm down on the
Lizard.
Truro is as well served by Coffee houses and Tea shops as it
is by anything else. Right next door to
the Scholary is The Baking Bird, serving up 17 different flavours of cupcakes
and a range of cakes all made on the premises.
There’s Charlotte’s Tea House in the upstairs of Coinage Hall (above
Pizza Express), providing a more ‘traditional’ experience; Costa Coffee, Caffe
Nero and Starbucks; 108 Coffee House who will even deliver fresh coffee and
their handmade cakes if you’re working!
Further afield you can basically guarantee a cream tea wherever you go
in Cornwall.
Getting out of Truro
Finally, it goes without saying that Cornwall has some of
the most beautiful coastline to be found in Britain. Surf shops are on almost every beach,
especially on the north coast. There’s
more than just surf on offer though, what with things like the coastal path
between Gylly and Swanpool, walking up to Zennor Head (and lunch at The Tinners
Arms), Mousehole, Lamorna Cove just for starters. On Perranporth sits the UK’s only pub on a
beach, The Watering Hole, which runs a series gigs all through the summer,
including the Doritos Mariachi Band in 2015; they welcomed The Hoosiers and
even DJ Jazzy Jeff in 2014. In town
there’s the Victoria and Boscawen Parks to enjoy the sunshine in, but why waste
your time in the city when the beach is only a bus or cheap train away?
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