Six Unusual Street Names in St. Ives that will Make you Look Twice

What’s in a name? In the case of these streets nestled in between the picturesque fisherman’s cottages in the Down’long area of St.Ives a lot of strange town trivia!

Teetotal Street

The Methodist movement began in the eighteenth century with John Wesley, he visited Cornwall often to carry out his open-air sermons to miners and village folk alike. He must have taken note of the ‘thirsty’ Cornish culture and pushed for new ways, like street names, to spread his abstinence movement.

Virgin Street

Saint Ia is the patron saint of St.Ives (if we had a pound for every…), she was of noble birth who devoted her life to prayer until her untimely martyrdom at the hands of the particularly nasty Medieval king. The parish church in St Ives is called St Ia and she is celebrated every 3rd of February.

Salubrious Place

It’s thought this street was named around the same time as Teetotal St by the Methodists and meaning ‘health-giving’ which is ironic considering there’s a fudge shop nearby.

Fish Street

When fishing was the mainstay of economy for St Ives, this was where the main fish gutting and filleting went on.

Wheal Dream

This street is named after the Wheal Dream mine. Wheal means mine in the Cornish language back when tin mining was lucrative. The St Ives Museum now stands in this street.

Court Cocking

Don’t let your imagination run away with you, Court Cocking has a very innocent meaning, though it does seem quite a rude name. It is perhaps where the “cockyn” were kept. (These were small boats used for seine fishing. A seine is a fishing net that hangs vertically in the water with its bottom edge held down by weights and its top edge buoyed by floats). Or it could be a reference to the Cocking family. Or you can go ahead and create your own meaning not that you need encouragement from us.

So there you have it six silly names that reveal some St Ives town trivia, why not plan a walk and tick them all off?

If you do decide to visit it, don’t forget to book your stay with us on one of our holiday homes in St. Ives or surrounding areas.