The Jubilee Pool in Penzance have announced an exciting crowdfunding project to raise fund to deliver the widely anticipated geothermal project, which will heat a section of Jubilee Pool to 35°C and allow the pool to open all year round from 2019.
Investors can invest sums of £20 upwards, with rewards including free swims, limited edition prints and free tickets to a Gala evening.
Described as one of the most unusual and pleasingly designed lidos of the era, the Jubilee Pool was designed in the early 1930s by Captain F Latham, the Borough Engineer. The pool was opened with great celebration in May 1935, the year of King George V’s Silver Jubilee. The Pool was built upon a traditional bathing spot at the Battery Rocks near the harbour at Penzance. Cleverly designed to cope with the full ferocity of the Cornish seas, the pool is triangular in shape yet with gentle curves, making it a most pleasant environment. It was damaged in the storms of 2014 but reopened in May 2016 following major refurbishment.
Work has already started on drilling a geothermal well which will provide enough renewable energy to heat a section of the water to 35°C. It is being drilled thanks to grants from the European Union, but a condition of that funding was that Jubilee Pool has to fund the costs of connecting the well up to the pool and build the section that will contain the heated water. There are also plans to build a new café facility and community space along the top terrace.
Susan Stuart, one of the directors commented ‘The money will be raised partly from loans and grant funding, but an anticipated £350,000 will be raised directly from the general public, so we’re planning to do this by launching a community share offer. We can’t deliver this project without the community’s help, and we hope everyone will consider investing in our scheme, whether it’s just one share or 10,000, together we can all share in the pool’s exciting future’.
Martin Nixon, fellow director said ‘Jubilee Pool is now widely considered to be the best example of a pre-war Lido, not only in the UK but the world. It’s a remarkable building providing safe seawater bathing for all ages; it’s a unique modernist lido of national architectural importance; a tourist attraction in its own right; and now, it’s set to provide a catalyst for the future economic regeneration of our town.”
As a listed building in a seaside location Jubilee Pool will always require ongoing investment, but the directors believe the pool is capable of becoming less reliant on public funding. With 40,000 visitors last summer, it is already a successful visitor attraction with or without geothermal. However, once it becomes an all-year-round attraction, they believe it will pay for itself.
To invest visit https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/...