Barton's chemist shop in Bridge Street is a good example of the fine old houses to be found in St Ives. It was built in 1728, a large and solidly constructed three-storey house of red brick. The shop front is every bit as fine as the rest of the house. Throughout the town centre it is inevitably the ground-floor shop fronts that are altered most often (not always very tastefully), but Barton's shop front dates from 1820 - the oldest one in St Ives. The shop behind it contains many other survivals from an earlier age of commerce.