Jubilee Pool

Interesting facts

The pool's triangular plan, jutting out from the rocks into the sea, was chosen to stand up to Cornish storms while its curving walls shelter swimmers from the wind.

Rows of changing cubicles were built straight into the stepped concrete terraces that descend from the entrances at road level.

In Cornish the lido is called Poll Jubile.

Before it was built, the pool split the town council, as some members argued the money should go to improving Penzance's water supply instead.

Its first summer brought in nearly £700 in takings, an impressive sum in 1935.

The pool was formally listed at Grade II on 4 March 1993, after a campaign by a group later known as the Friends of Jubilee Pool.

In 1993 it received new sea defences and a reinforced concrete lining costing about £260,000, funded partly by the European Union.

Its 1994 relaunch, opened by Penzance-born actress Jan Harvey, prompted calls to restore Plymouth's Tinside Lido as well.

The heated geothermal pool opened to the public on 1 September 2020, the same year Parkdean Resorts named Jubilee Pool the best lido in the UK.

Why it is worth it

Jubilee Pool sits on Battery Rocks at the edge of Penzance, a seawater lido built out into the sea itself. It holds about five million litres of seawater, is roughly 90 m long and 50 m wide, and takes up to 600 swimmers. It is the largest seawater pool in the United Kingdom and, apart from Saltdean Lido, counted as the finest surviving lido of its era, listed at Grade II. The rocks were a bathing spot long before the pool. The borough engineer, Captain Frank Latham, designed the pool between 1931 and 1934 to fit their shape. Writers have called it Art Deco, cubist-inspired, even a seagull in flight, and each catches something of its sharp, sweeping outline against the water.

The pool opened on 31 May 1935 for the Silver Jubilee of George V, over the objections of a councillor who called it the biggest white elephant Penzance would ever have. By that August nearly 60,000 people had been through the gates. The sea has always been part of its story. The 1962 Ash Wednesday storm broke through the far wall, and the storms of February 2014 destroyed the pool floor, changing rooms and terraces. Between those came slow decline, closure in 1992 and a local campaign that got the building listed, relined and back in use by 1994.

The most recent chapter is the most unusual. In 2019 a well was drilled 410 m into the ground beneath the site, and heat pumps drawing on it now warm a geothermal pool to around 28–30°C. It was the first lido of its kind in Britain, while the great main pool remains a seawater pool. The pool is owned by around 1,400 local shareholders and run as a social enterprise. Swimming here, with only a concrete wall between you and the open sea, is the lido experience at its most dramatic.

Getting there

Jubilee Pool is on Battery Road, about 0.6 km from the centre of Penzance. Cornwall Airport Newquay (NQY) is 52.7 km away. Penzance railway station, served by Great Western Railway, is about half a mile away, a walk of 10 to 15 minutes.

From the encyclopaedia

Jubilee Pool is an Art Deco lido in Penzance, Cornwall. It is Grade II listed, being recognised as the finest surviving example of its type with the exception of Saltdean Lido. With a capacity of 5 million litres and 600 swimmers and measuring 300 feet long and 160 feet wide, it is the UK's largest seawater pool.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Jubilee Pool

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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From the encyclopaedia