One of the most well-known outdoor pools in the UK and surely one of the most beautiful. Penzance Bathing Pool is better known as Jubilee Bathing Pool as it was opened in the year of King George V’s Silver Jubilee.
The pool has had a chequered history with storm damage in 1962. The pool was closed in 1992 and fell into disrepair. The Jubilee Pool Association was formed and the pool received listed status. New sea defences and a reinforced concrete lining were built in 1993 at a cost of £260,000. It was re-opened in 1994 but again suffered storm damage in 2014 when it was closed. The repairs to the changing block and the pool floor was just short of £3m.
The European Regional Development Fund provided a grant of £1.4m to heat the pool with geothermal energy. A 410m well was drilled into the rock below the pool.
The pool has a superb history site, Jubilee Pool Stories, with numerous photographs, details of the history and animated oral histories.
| Name | Jubilee Pool aka Penzance Bathing Pool |
| Built / opened | 31st May 1935 by Alderman J W Meek, J.P. |
| Cost | £15,000 |
| Dimensions | 330′ x 240′ |
| Capacity | 1,000,000 gallons |
| Water type | Sea water |
| Depth(s) | 3′ to 15′ (varies with tide) |
| Diving | |
| Changing facilities | 92 concrete dressing boxes to perimeter |
| Second pool | N/A |
| Spectator seating | |
| Designer | Cptn. Frank Latham, M.Inst.C.E., I.F.S.E., |
| Date closed | 1993, re-opened 1994 |
| Status | Open |
| On site now | The pool |
| Links | Jubilee Pool, Penzance. Opening 1935 |
| Last updated | 11th July 2025 |
Baths and Bath Engineering July 1935
The bathing pool of the borough of Penzance was opened in May last at a cost of over £15,000. Streamlines have been used to the greatest advantage in meeting the direction of the storm waves. The length of the streamlined dam is 400 ft., having a width of some 27 ft. to accommodate terraces, steps and dressing boxes; some portions of the terraces around the pool interior are 30 to 40 ft. in width.
The whole pool is surrounded by high sea-walls terraced up within the interior so as to give aspect and effect. They also serve to strengthen the structure. The longest straight swimming course in the pool is 330 ft. from north to south: across, from east to west, the longest course is 240 ft.
National and international requirements are amply met with regarding length and width of racecourses and water polo field of play; whilst depths of water are sufficient for purposes of high diving, which can be regulated according to the depths of the tides. The mean depth spring tides at the south end is 15 ft., and 3 ft. in the children’s north-east corner. These depths are reduced or heightened according to the ranges of the spring and neap tides. The south end of the pool has been heightened above the level of the sea-bed, in order that the pool may be completely emptied.
The filling and emptying are controlled by seven sluice gates. There are also overflows, and an entirely separate system of surface drainage, excluding all surface water from the pool.
There are 92 concrete dressing boxes for adults. of both sexes, and two shelters for children. A treble system of lighting has been adapted – viz., floodlights, pilot lights and throughout the dressing boxes, etc. The interior of the pool is finished with Snowcrete, while the terraces are finished with green Colourcrete.
Mr. Frank Latham, M.Inst.C.E., I.F.S.E., is the borough engineer and surveyor. We are indebted to Mr. J. H. Blight, the deputy borough engineer and surveyor, for furnishing us with the foregoing information.
