Penzance

For other uses, see Penzance (disambiguation).

Penzance
Town
A panorama of Penzance
Penzance is located in Cornwall
Penzance
Penzance
Location within Cornwall
Population21,200 (2011)
OS grid referenceSW475306
Civil parish
  • Penzance
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townPENZANCE
Postcode districtTR18
Dialling code01736
PoliceDevon and Cornwall
FireCornwall
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
Websitewww.penzancetowncouncil.co.uk
List of places
UK
England
Cornwall
50°07′08″N 5°32′13″W / 50.119°N 5.537°W / 50.119; -5.537

Penzance (/pɛnˈzæns/ pen-ZANSS; Cornish: Pennsans)[1] is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the westernmost major town in Cornwall[2] and is about 64 miles (103 km) west-southwest of Plymouth and 255 miles (410 km) west-southwest of London. Situated in the shelter of Mount's Bay, the town faces south-east onto the English Channel, is bordered to the west by the fishing port of Newlyn, to the north by the civil parish of Madron and to the east by the civil parish of Ludgvan. The civil parish includes the town of Newlyn and the villages of Mousehole, Paul, Gulval, and Heamoor. Granted various royal charters from 1512 onwards and incorporated on 9 May 1614,[3] it has a population of 21,200 (2011 census).[4]

Penzance's former[further explanation needed] main street Chapel Street has a number of interesting features, including the Egyptian House, The Admiral Benbow public house (home to a real life 1800s smuggling gang and allegedly the inspiration for Treasure Island's "Admiral Benbow Inn"),[5] the Union Hotel (including a Georgian theatre which is no longer in use), and Branwell House, where the mother and aunt of the famous Brontë sisters once lived. Regency and Georgian terraces and houses are common in some parts of the town. The nearby sub-tropical Morrab Gardens has a large collection of tender trees and shrubs, many of which cannot be grown outdoors anywhere else in the UK. Also of interest is the seafront with its promenade and the open-air seawater Jubilee Pool (one of the oldest surviving Art Deco swimming baths in the country).

Penzance is the base of the pirates in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Pirates of Penzance. At the time the libretto was written, 1879, Penzance had become popular as a peaceful resort town, so the idea of it being overrun by pirates was amusing to contemporaries.

Penzance panorama
  1. ^ Official Maga Placenames list, November 2012; p. 520 Archived 15 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 203 Land's End ISBN 978-0-319-23148-7
  3. ^ Millett, G.B. (1876). The Official Guide to Penzance. Penzance: Beare and Son. pp. 2–3. Retrieved 1 July 2017.
  4. ^ "Town populations: Data from the 2011 Census (Office for National Statistics) built from Lower Layer Super Output Areas". Cornwall Council. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  5. ^ Gainey, Tom (10 December 2017). "Cornwall's smuggling past - a look at six pubs at the heart of a 'golden age' of criminality". The Cornishman.