Town in Cornwall, England
Penzance
Penzance is the westernmost large town in England, where a Gilbert and Sullivan pirate comedy, a sub-tropical garden and a tidal causeway to a castle all share one bay.
Key information
- County
- Cornwall
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 21,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- The Pirates of Penzance, Jubilee Pool, Newlyn fishing port, gateway to St Michael's Mount and the Isles of Scilly
- What locals are called
- Penzancians
- Famous people
- Humphry Davy, Maria Branwell, Dolly Pentreath, Sir Humphry's statue stands on Market Jew Street
About Penzance
The pirates were a joke about the end of the line
Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Pirates of Penzance premiered in New York on 31 December 1879, partly to secure the American copyright. The title was a gag: Penzance was a respectable, far-flung seaside town, about as far from piracy as the Victorian imagination could place it. The name has outlived the joke. Ask people elsewhere in Britain what they know about Penzance and the pirates usually come first, and the town plays along with the odd themed event. The name itself is Cornish: Pennsans means 'holy headland', a reference to a chapel that once stood on the rocky point by the harbour.
Where the railway ran out of England
Penzance is the end of the line. The railway reached the town in 1852, when the West Cornwall Railway opened its station, and the terminus made Penzance the westernmost major rail station in England. That mattered enormously for local business: early flowers, vegetables and fish could be on city tables within a day. The harbour is also the departure point for the Isles of Scilly. The Scillonian ferry sails from Penzance harbour and helicopters depart from Penzance Heliport, while fixed-wing flights use Land's End Airport, so for many visitors Penzance is the last proper town they see before the Atlantic. Next door is Newlyn, one of the busiest fishing ports in England. Its harbour and fish market sit within walking distance, and the art colony that gathered there in the 1880s gave the world the Newlyn School of painters.
A lido that survived the Atlantic
Jubilee Pool, opened in 1935, is a triangular art deco lido built right on the seafront and filled by the sea. It is one of the largest surviving seawater lidos in Britain, and it has taken some beatings from winter storms, including one in 2014 that badly damaged it. The community rallied and rebuilt, and in later years a geothermal section was added, so there is a heated pool beside the cold one. Swimming here with the whole of Mount's Bay in front of you is a very Penzance thing to do. The pool's clean white lines are a reminder that this was once a fashionable resort, drawing visitors thanks to the mild climate.
Palm trees, Egyptian pillars and a Cornish language last stand
Penzance's mild climate lets palms and other exotic plants thrive in places like Morrab Gardens, a sheltered public garden near the seafront. The effect, in a town at the tip of England, is oddly Mediterranean. On Chapel Street, the Egyptian House is a flamboyant early nineteenth-century building with a facade decorated in the style of ancient Egypt, a fashion that swept Britain after Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. Penlee House Gallery and Museum, set in a park, holds many of the Newlyn School works. The town is also linked to the story of the Cornish language. Dolly Pentreath, who died in 1777 and was long said to be the last native speaker of Cornish, is buried nearby in Paul, and a memorial to her stands in the churchyard. Cornish has since been revived.
Humphry Davy and Market Jew Street
The town's most famous son is Humphry Davy, born in Penzance in 1778. He went on to invent the Davy lamp, a safety lamp for miners, and discovered several chemical elements, including sodium and potassium. His statue stands outside the Market House at the top of Market Jew Street. The street is not named after him. The name Market Jew is thought to come from a Cornish phrase, marghas yow, meaning 'Thursday market'. The street still runs straight up from the harbour. Maria Branwell, mother of the Brontë sisters, was also born in Penzance, in 1783, so the town can claim a connection to Charlotte, Emily and Anne.
Mazey Day, pasties and a mount in the bay
Every June, the Golowan Festival fills the town with music, parades and fire. Its climax, Mazey Day, is a street party where people gather in costume and processions wind through the centre. The old name Golowan refers to the midsummer celebrations of St John's Eve. Food is local and good: pasties, of course, plus fresh fish from Newlyn, Cornish cream teas and plenty of seafood restaurants along the harbour. Across the bay is St Michael's Mount, a tidal island topped by a castle and linked to the mainland at Marazion by a cobbled causeway that can be walked at low tide. It is the area's best-known landmark and is easily reached from Penzance by bus or by a pleasant walk along the shore. On the sporting side, Penzance has its own rugby club, the Pirates, and a long tradition of Cornish wrestling and rugby across the far west.