Penzance

Perched dramatically above Mount’s Bay, Penzance comes from the Cornish ‘pen sans’, meaning ‘holy headland’, as an ancient chapel dedicated to St Mary used to stand on the headland to the west of the present harbour. For centuries, it was a remote market town which made its living from fishing, mining and smuggling. Today, it is has all the trappings of the holiday industry due to the rail link to London which was established in the 1860’s. Along with nearby Newlyn and Mousehole, most traces of the medieval town were obliterated in 1595 by a Spanish raiding party, including the ancient chapel. The predominant style now is Regency and Victorian, and Penzance is home to Cornwall’s only promenade, which stretches to Newlyn. The town’s main function, besides being a tourist centre, is costal defence.

This is a place of great vitality and originality with much of interest to see and do. The Penzance Town Trail takes visitors on a circular route that winds through the town, tracing its story through buildings and historical remains, statues and medieval crosses, churches, chapels, gardens and shops. There is a guidebook which describes the 16 waymarkers. The Penzance Town Trail Guidebook is available from Penzance Town Council Offices, Penlee House Museum and Gallery and some local shops.

If you are short on time, many of the town’s most interesting buildings can be found on Chapel Street, which leads down from the domed Market House, built in 1836, to the quay. Outside the Market House is a statue to Penzance’s most famous son, Sir Humphry Davy (1778-1829), considered to be one of the greatest British chemists. Davy discovered six new elements including potassium and sodium, discovered the use of nitrous oxide (‘laughing gas’), and played a large part in the local mining community when he invented the miners’ safety lamp, which bears his name and which can be seen on the statue.

One of the more exotic buildings along this narrow thoroughfare is the Egyptian House, built in the 1830s and restored by the Landmark Trust. It is an amazing confection of paned windows, painted walls and elaborate mouldings. Behind the Georgian facade of The Union Hotel opposite is an impressive Elizabethan interior where, from a minstrels’ gallery in the assembly room, the first mainland announcement of the victory of Trafalgar and the death of Lord Nelson was made.

Further down is Chapel Street, where No 25 was the childhood home of Marie Branwell, the mother of the Bront‘ sisters. Local history and the work of the Newlyn School of artists can be seen at the Penlee House Gallery and Museum, where paintings of the Newlyn school can be seen, including those by Walter Langley, and where the county’s long association with the mining industry led to the foundation of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall in 1814.

Along the promenade lies the Jubilee Pool, a wonderful open-air seawater swimming pool that still has its original art deco styling. The pool is open every summer from the end of May to early September.

Over 10 days in late June, the Golowan Festival (Cornish for ‘midsummer’) is the festival of Saint John and features fireworks, a variety of music and other entertainments, culminating in the Mazey weekend and notably Mazey Day on the Saturday, which centres around the parades and other street events in the centre of town. Quay Fair Day takes place on the Sunday when focus moves to the harbour area and the promenade.

Anyone who saw the television adaptation of Mary Wesley’s novel The Camomile Lawn will recognise Penzance as the town to which the three main characters, Calypso, Walter and Polly, came for their annual summer visit.

Two miles west of Penzance at Buryas Bridge, Trewidden Garden is best known for its camellias, with a collection of over 300 varieties built up over many decades from places as far afield as China and India. Other highlights include a superb magnolia x veitchii that is believed to be the largest specimen in the British Isles, and which overshadows a pond. There are also several remnants of the tin mining industry and a bomb crater formed in World War II when a series of parachute bombs exploded in the area.

Available Guidebooks for this region:

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