Surrounded by the harshest elements – the Atlantic Ocean lapping at the coastline and the rugged moorland on top – St Ives feels both vital and cultured thanks to its artistic heritage.
At the top of Barnoon Hill, hidden among a mass of small paths and alleys, is a small door. Walk through and you are in the former home and studio of Barbara Hepworth, Britain’s most famous female sculptor. “Finding Trewyn Studio was a kind of magic,” she once said, “here was a studio, courtyard and garden where I could work outside and in space.”
Hepworth’s tools are neatly displayed and her assistants’ coats are still on hooks. The former Coach House consists essentially of two medium-sized rooms and is strangely filled (for an artist known for his massive, sculptural works) with small, intimate sculptures with their characteristic abstraction. Go upstairs and you are in her beloved garden. The sculptures here – larger and in weathered bronze and stone – are paired with the plants she chose – spiky yuccas and swaying bamboos, which continue to thrive thanks to the microclimate and the massive walls that protect them. Hepworth’s studio is understandably becoming one of the most visited places in St Ives today, and is run by the same team that run the Tate St Ives gallery.
Hepworth moved to the city in 1939 with an eight-year-old son, four-year-old triplets and a complicated relationship with the abstract artist Ben Nicholson, and lived there until her death in 1975.
It’s quieter now in these late winter months, but visitor numbers have increased as a major exhibition of Hepworth’s work runs until May 1.
Magical place: Sarah Turner visits St Ives, pictured, the town in Cornwall loved by Barbara Hepworth, Britain’s most famous female sculptor
Hepworth, pictured with one of her sculptures, moved to the city in 1939 with an eight-year-old son, four-year-old triplets and a complicated relationship with abstract artist Ben Nicholson, and lived there until her death in 1975
Along with the second homers, they crash across the cobblestone streets as mighty as the Atlantic waves, through the tourist shops (especially thanks to the brilliantly named Gullz R Loud) and gourmet pie shops. However, the art scene and fishing are still the heartbeat of St Ives.
Tate St. Ives, once the town’s gasworks, overlooks Porthmeor beach and surfers still enjoy the wide waves breaking against the golden strip of sand.
Hepworth’s work features heavily in the museum’s permanent collection, but so do other artists who were born and lived in the town such as Alfred Wallis and those who emerged in Cornwall and the community. St Ives still keeps its craft traditions alive.
Founded in 1920 by Bernard Leach, The Leach Pottery still makes their simple but beautifully crafted pots here.
Under the Tate, Porthmeor Studios, where Francis Bacon and Patrick Heron painted – mending nets – in the light rooms of former sardine fishermen and their wives.
The fishing industry still uses the cellars, but the studios are now home to a new generation of St Ives artists.
Hepworth’s output was immense and she eventually expanded her studio into the Palais de Dance opposite her studio.
Hepworth’s most famous sculptures were made here, including the 21-foot Single Form Bronze that stands in front of the United Nations in New York and Winged Victory on John Lewis’ side of Oxford Street, which millions of people pass by every day.
Hepworth’s most famous sculptures were made during her time at St Ives
Hepworth’s former home and studio has been converted into a museum. “Hepworth’s tools are neatly displayed and her assistants’ coats are still on hooks,” writes Sarah
The sculptures at the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden are surrounded by spiky yuccas and swaying bamboo
Tate St. Ives (centre) was the town’s gasworks and sits above Porthmeor beach
This provision also applies to St. Ives. My hotel – the Pedn Olva in the center of town – on its own promontory was once a copper mine.
It is now a friendly pub hotel with spectacular views over Porthminster Harbor and St Ives and a range of bedrooms where you can sleep while the waves wash over the rocks below.
And Hepworth shaped St Ives in many ways.
It is the most moving in the St. Ia church in the heart of the city. After her eldest son died in a plane crash in Malaysia while in the RAF, she created the extremely simple but beautiful Madonna and Child.
It’s absolutely beautiful to be able to walk into a side chapel and stare at it. But you can also find her sculptures in the library, in front of the town hall and next to the bus station, presented with minimal effort.
Sarah lives in the Pedn Olva (centre of photo), a cozy cafe-hotel in the center of the city
Living on the Edge: Pedn Olva offers a series of bedrooms where you sleep while the waves crash against the rocks below
Pedn Olva has spectacular views over Porthminster Harbor and St Ives
Hepworth is responsible for the beautiful cobbled streets of St Ives – she campaigned to ensure local authorities did not pave the town’s streets
Above St Ives, moorland is dotted with Bronze Age monuments. Lanyon Quoit, a three-legged Neolithic burial chamber with a cover stone, and it is on this heath that Hepworth trod for inspiration.
They are now criss-crossed by footpaths and crowned with reasonably good pubs, including Gurnard’s Head, which behind its mustard-coloured walls serves a very fashionable, sustainable menu based heavily on fish and walker-friendly beef and venison stew.
Back in St. Ives artists were also drawn to the bars and art clubs.
They are still going, in fact the Arts Club was founded on Westcotts Quay in 1880 with the sign ‘the next art club to the sea’.
And the pubs too – Francis Bacon lost a tooth in a fight at the Sloop Inn.
Now they could all hang out at Porthminster Kitchen on the beach and eat Cornish sole and monkfish curry. It is far from what St. Ives Hepworth loved.
The footpaths in this part of Cornwall are “strewn with pretty good pubs”, including Gurnard’s Head (above).
Sarah writes that Pub Gurnard’s Head ‘serves a very fashionable, sustainable menu’
And those beautiful cobblestones? Blame Barbara Hepworth.
As well as being Britain’s most famous post-war sculptor, she was also an early environmentalist and stood up for herself should the local government try to tame the narrow lanes and lanes of this Cornish port town – threatening to lock herself up to hang up.
“That’s why we wear sneakers,” said a Tate employee ruefully.
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James is an author and travel journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a love for exploring new cultures and discovering unique destinations, James brings his readers on a journey with him through his articles.
