The site of the Market Building was bought from the Manor of Alverton for £34 as one of the first acts of the Corporation of Penzance after James I granted the town a charter in 1614.

The Market Building was designed to direct its users attention away from the vulgarity of the streets and the uninspired and often depressingly ugly uniformity of the town.

[5]Built from granite ashlar, the building is crowned by a lead-covered dome and octagonal lantern[6] which is visible from much of the town, and from neighbouring villages.

The eastern end consists of four ionic columns with a portico known as tetrastyle and overlooks a main thoroughfare of Penzance (which was once the A30) and a statue of Humphry Davy (erected in 1872).

The foundation stone was laid on 11 July 1836 and the building was opened by the Mayor of Penzance Richard Pearce on the day of Queen Victoria's Coronation, 28 June 1838, though it may have started trading two weeks earlier.

The upper storey of the western end housed the Corn Exchange which also served a dual purpose as a theatre.

[1] The eastern part of the building remained as the guildhall until St John's Hall (200 metres (660 ft) to the west) was built on glebe land in Alverton and opened in 1867.