Penzance's triangular 1930s seawater pool on the rocks of Mount's Bay, with a geothermally heated section that stays warm into autumn
Open to visitorsopen late March to early November; book swim sessions online — check times before you go
The town of Penzance opened Jubilee Pool on 31 May 1935, the year of George V’s Silver Jubilee. Captain Frank Latham, the borough engineer, set the pool on the rocks at the edge of Mount’s Bay in a roughly triangular shape, with Art Deco terraces around it. At about 300 ft by 160 ft and holding some 5 million litres, Jubilee is billed as the largest seawater pool in the UK, and it is a listed building. Storms in February 2014 wrecked the pool floor and terraces, and the pool reopened in May 2016 after £2.94m of repairs. Today it belongs to a community company with about 1,400 local shareholders.
The main pool is unheated sea water, filled from the bay and usually only a degree or two warmer than the sea itself. A smaller pool is kept at 28 to 30°C by a geothermal well drilled 410 m down, paid for with a £1.4m European grant, which makes Jubilee the only geothermally heated lido in the UK. The season runs from late March to early November, and booking online is wise, though walk-ins are let in when there’s space. Penzance station is about 1km north, and the free tidal Mousehole Rock Pool is about 3km down the coast.
