Jubilee Pool

Jubilee Pool is an Art Deco lido on Battery Rocks in Penzance, Cornwall. It stands on a site already used for bathing before the pool was built. Captain Frank Latham, the Borough Engineer, designed the pool between 1931 and 1934. Its shape was said to be inspired by a seagull in flight. The pool opened in May 1935 for King George V’s Silver Jubilee. By August that year, nearly 60,000 visitors had swum there. The pool has survived storms and changing fashions. Damage from the 1962 Ash Wednesday Storm led to years of decline. It closed in 1992 but was saved by the Jubilee Pool Association and restored as a listed building. In 2014, winter storms destroyed changing rooms and the pool floor. Repairs cost £2.94 million and reopened in 2016. Since then, it has drawn around 40,000 visitors each year. Visitors find a long, wide pool filled with seawater. The reinforced concrete lining keeps the water clean. In 2019, a 410-metre geothermal well was drilled beneath the pool to heat it. The pool is now run by 1,400 local shareholders as a social enterprise. Its Art Deco style and coastal setting make it a landmark in Penzance.