The Cornish Bank recently celebrated its first anniversary in a whirlwind year for the venue hosting well over 100 gigs in that time.

Opened by Rufus Maurice and Will Greenham, the bank on Church Street is a bar, cafe, and restaurant, but also has an area for gigs. It has brought so many different musicians already and is proving a big hit.

It's not just music Rufus and Will welcome to the bank, there are regular life drawing classes, sketch clubs, botanical drawing classes, talks, book launches, and food events.

"The amount of stuff that has gone on is amazing," Rufus told Nub News.

The two of them have worked extremely hard to get it off the ground but Rufus said the town is "absolutely loving it" which makes it all worthwhile. We caught up with them to reflect on the first year.

Has it turned out as you imagined?

We probably didn't imagine how much people would love it. I didn't realise the town would get so behind it.

A huge range of people come in to enjoy the place. The other night we had a Cornish dance band come in and the room was full of people, from people in their 80s down to students. That to me is success, the community is loving it.

Every time I come in here there is always something going on - how do you keep that up?

It is always so busy. Our cafe has taken a long time to get right and also we had so much work to do in the kitchen because neither Will nor I are from catering. The music side was fine but the kitchen side has been building slowly.

It has been a slow start in the kitchen but now we have a fantastic kitchen manager in now. The cafe is ready so we can plan the day with more events. This is equally a cafe as it is supposed to be a bar.

The space is now open for anybody in the community who has an event. We have reading groups now, people from political groups, office Christmas parties coming in. It is a really nice blend, weirdly it is like a community centre. I am definitely happy a year in, it is proving successful, our gigs are selling out quickly, and in fact This Is The Kit sold out in less than an hour the other day.

What does the next year look like for The Cornish Bank?

We have got an incredible lineup coming, from spring there are some big acts coming in which we are very excited about. Keep an eye out on the website for those.

We are going to be pushing more daytime things this year because we have a huge passion to have something for everyone. We are doing market stalls here for local craftspeople and producers. There will be kids groups, as well as nighttime events carrying on.

We also want to open the old bank vault for local bands/musicians to practice in because it is soundproof. People can come and practice without worrying about making too much noise. We are hoping if we can help these younger bands out, that might help fertilise the music industry in the area. There is more work to do on it before we can start that though. Anyway, it is all very exciting.

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