Penzance

I’ve certainly been hitting the islands this year – Christmas Island and Cocos Keeling, out in the Indian Ocean off Australia and Indonesia. Then a brief stop and a walk on Sharp Island in Hong Kong, on a stopover between Australia and the UK. A visit to the wonderful Orkney Islands north of Scotland followed by three Greek islands. Then Greenland and finally the Isles of Scilly – never the Scilly Isles or Scilly Islands – just 50km west of Land’s End, the western tip of Cornwall and the England mainland.

▲ En route we – there were nine of us, Maureen and me plus seven other friends – took the train from London to Penzance and stopped there briefly before taking the Scillonian III ferry to St Mary’s, the principal island. The Scillonian III is coming up for its 50th birthday in 2027, but this was a last chance to ride, the Scillonian IV has already been launched in Vietnam and promises to be more comfortable than its predecessor. Sometimes dubbed the ‘Vomit Comet’ the Scillonian III did tend to rock & roll in choppy weather. ‘Being sick is all part of the package‘ one island traveller commented and ’ the challenge of surviving the trip is part of the draw for many.’ We had a relatively calm – although very foggy, there was not much to see – crossing.

Penzance has recently come up in the world – ‘Forget St Ives – the smart set are heading to Penzance this summer’ – the Daily Telegraph reported: ‘After decades in the doldrums, the unfashionable town – still rough around the edges – has finally become chic.’ So we stayed in the recently renovated and rather fashionable Chapel House Hotel (the best hotel in Cornwall according to House & Garden magazine), noted that the main shopping street sports the name Market Jew Street, and checked out the Jubilee Pool, a 1935 art-deco masterpiece and Britain’s largest saltwater pool.

▲ The Rain it Raineth Every Day, Norman Garstin, Penlee Museum

I particularly liked this 1899 painting in the excellent Penlee House Gallery & Museum with its fine local art collection. Having paid for this rainy day portrait the Town Council then hid it away in the town hall, afraid it would make Penzance look like a miserably wet place! Today it’s one of the most popular images of the town.

▲ Outside the museum the very Celtic-looking Penzance Market Cross has had quite a history. Created in the 11th century, it moved repeatedly over the past 200 years without ever going very far, was treated with very little respect (slapped up against a wall and facing the wrong way more than once) and now they worry about it becoming weathered and indecipherable and yet they leave it sitting outside when it could come indoors?

▲Walking back to the hotel, via that art-deco pool, we chanced upon Daniel Place, a street of multi-colour houses. A couple in the street explained that one new arrival painted his place in colourful style and then everybody else felt obliged to join in. Terrific.