The Jubilee swimming pool in Penzance, Cornwall is all things. It is both a blast from the past, a piece of modern engineering, a story of contemporary financial funding and is now a traditional harbinger of our times, with the announcement that it is closing!
The Jubilee Pool is a historic art deco lido in an unusual triangular shape, It is massive, being the largest saltwater pool in the UK with an estimated 5 million liter’s capacity. Opened in 1935 to mark the silver jubilee of George V it ran the usual gamut of popularity and then neglect. It weathered damage from storms in both 1962 and 2014. With more recent funding being provided by community funds, as well as ironically a substantial ERDF grant, over £3m was invested for the pool’s revival. Along with the addition of a 410m hole drilled into the bedrock below the existing Lido, this created a smaller geothermal energy pool heated to a cosy 32 degrees, which opened in September 2020.
The huge popularity of wild swimming and outdoor swimming should have made the pool popular. But as with so many projects while the enthusiasm and funding for the actual project is made available the resulting ongoing maintenance can damage its survival. In January 2024 the pool closed, intended to be a winter closure to mitigate high energy costs, low winter usage, and to enable further refurbishment and improve the sustainability of the Lido. It is scheduled to re-open in May 2024. What its long-term future looks like depends upon its popularity, which requires smart marketing and pricing to ensure it covers those high running costs. Let’s hope it succeeds.
Cultural Highlights 