Somewhere nearby was Geoffrey Bazeley, a native of the town, who designed Tregannick House, Sancreed, Cornwall, which is, according to architectural historians, “one of the best Modern Movement houses in the West”. My outing follows the Western Promenade Road and then via New Road takes me towards Newlyn – on level ground (perfect for bikes, pushchairs or running). I make a short detour to another modernist building, Acland House, in Lidden Road, built on what was open land but is now in the middle of an estate. It might be a Geoffrey Bazeley but other sources credit the Drewitts.
The Scillonian III
From the railway station I take the coast road toward the quays to find the good ship Scillonian III disembarking island passengers and craning ashore a small fishing boat. The Scillonian ploughs the 30-mile crossing eight months of the year carrying up to 485 passengers. Voyages to the Scilly Isles can be memorable for the marine sightseeing – dolphins and sharks – or for the torture of going to sea in a shallow-bottomed, peagreen boat. Acland House
The Yacht Inn
Next stop for me is the Jubilee Pool, just refurbished and reopened for the new season and dazzling white – as if no winter storm had touched it or ever could. The largest open-air seawater pool in the UK still surviving, it was designed in the early 1930s by Frank Latham and opened with great celebration in May 1935 for George V’s Silver Jubilee. The tempests of February 2014 all but wrecked it, and Storm Frank interrupted the rescue work last winter, but here it is, elegant, glamorous and floating out of the blue like a mirage. There’s more International Style curves just across the road at the Yacht Inn, which was designed in 1935 by Colin Minors Drewitt, one of a cluster of tuned-in local architects. Colin was in practice with his brother Frederick. 126
MANOR | High Summer 2016
And so to Newlyn, part of Penzance parish but with a character quite its own. Newlyn has one of the largest fishing fleets in the United Kingdom, with more than 40 acres of harbour. It is also known for the Newlyn School – the colony of artists here between the 1880s and the early 20th century who were lured by the light and the romance associated with hard and dangerous work in the open air. The 1895 Passmore Edwards Gallery – now the Newlyn Gallery – has a modern extension, shows contemporary art and (de rigueur these days) has an excellent cafe, this one with sea views as well. It was gallery Operations Officer Simon Jaques who recommended the Newlyn ice factory to me as a characteristic example of the architecture associated with the fishing industry. It was built just two years ago, and works round the clock freezing 100 tonnes of flake ice every day. The painters of the Newlyn School might not have seen much beauty in it, but a century later their artistic counterparts would: it’s very reminiscent of the industrial structures, particularly water towers, photographed by Bernd and Hilla Becher in Germany from 1959 until the 1990s. Simon Jaques told me he’d like to open a sushi restaurant there. Good idea – nowhere could the sushi be fresher. Back now to Penzance along the Western Promenade and via Morrab Road to the gates of Morrab Gardens, a public, sub-tropical oasis in the heart of town. Among the palms there’s a great rarity – one of just 30 independent libraries in the country – also some Grade