Falmouth, Cornwall - Culture

Culture

The Lady of the Lamp, Florence Nightingale, visited Falmouth and stayed at the town's Greenbank Hotel. Her name in the register can be viewed at the hotel today.

Falmouth has many literary connections. The town was the birthplace of Toad, Mole and Rat: Kenneth Grahame's classic Wind in the Willows began as a series of letters sent to his son. The first two were written at the Greenbank Hotel whilst Grahame was a guest in May 1907. Reproductions of the letters are currently on display in the hotel. Poldark author Winston Graham knew the town well and set his novel The Forgotten Story (1945) in Falmouth.

The town has been the setting for several films and television programmes. British film star Will Hay was a familiar face in Falmouth in 1935 whilst filming his comedy Windbag the Sailor. The movie had many scenes of the docks area. The docks area was featured in some scenes with John Mills for the 1948 film Scott of the Antarctic. Robert Newton, Bobby Driscoll and other cast members of the 1950 Walt Disney movie Treasure Island, (some scenes were filmed along the river Fal), were visitors to the town. Stars from the BBC TV serial The Onedin Line stayed in the town during filming in the late 1970s. In 2011 Paramount Pictures filmed parts of the movie World War Z starring Brad Pitt in Falmouth Docks and off the coast.

Falmouth has the first and last "Polytechnic": Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society.

The Falmouth Art Gallery is a public gallery with a diverse nineteenth century and twentieth century art collection including many notable modern Cornish artists exhibited in four to five seasonal exhibitions a year, as well as a "family friendly and free" community and schools education programme.

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