Penzance Arts Club featured reviews

AS FEATURED IN ...

HIP HOTEL 2002

THE WHICH? HOTEL GUIDE 2003

Penzance Arts Club - A Lively, arty atmosphere and simple accommodation in an interesting Penzance house.

Let's make it clear - this isn't everybody's cup of tea. But it is different, and if your tastes run to fringe arts and bohemian living, it could be great fun. It's a rather handsome listed building (dating from 1781) with a distinguished history, set on a steep corner site in one of the oldest parts of Penzance, by the docks. It's present uses and atmosphere, however, are utterly avant garde, for the building functions as a cultural centre for all manner of lively happenings in arty Penzance. Besides providing accommodation for all long-standing members, the rooms are available for 'temporary members' at a nominal premium too. The house has a colourful, raffish charm, cheerfully scruffy and stylish by turns. The bar-lounge is a focal point of socialising, with a mix of simple wooden seating in an elegantly proportioned room with rugs on polished floorboards. Tall French windows lead to a balcony and small walled garden with harbour views. Downstairs to the Frog Fish Caf'e, a separate managed basement restaurant decorated in the colours of the seaside with a flag stone floor. Some bedrooms have views of the bay with distant glimpses of St Michael's Mount. Enlivened by upbeat colour decor, these simple, slightly battered rooms have characterful furnishings. Bedroom arrangements are rudimentary, but some neat modem shower units are incorporated within the bedroom space (thus not for inhibited folk).

ALISTAIR SAWDAY'S - SPECIAL PLACES TO STAY
Amusing, quirky and original... the Arts Club has brought a little fun to old Penzance. Belinda has created and easy-going but vital cultural centre where you can fall into bed after a night of poetry and Jazz in the bar, or after an evening of fish in the gaily-coloured restaurant. The bar is a feast of ideas and art, with paintings all over the walls and a mix of comfortable and attractive furniture, marble open fireplaces, driftwood, Wooden floors and a most handsome wooden table. The little garden and balcony off the bar have fine views over the harbour. The bedrooms (attractive, colourful and surprisingly comfortable) are as charmingly flamboyant as the bar ifs raffish. There is elegance too, for the house was once the Portuguese embassy in more prosperous Penzance days. Not luxurious - the touches of scruffiness don't matter at all - but terrific value and one of the most engagingly individual places in the book. Rather than 'exclusive' (how we lament the word), this is 'inclusive' - a must for the open minded.

ELLE DECORATION - BOLTHOLE
A Slice of bohemia at the end of England
Why Go? Out of season is always the best time to visit the English coast, and the vibe at the Penzance Arts Club is 60s Chelsea with sea views.
Who else will you see there? Lots of floppy hatted, dropping cravetted, vintage Newlyn and St Ives school artists knocking back G & T's not to mention the painter showing in the clubs foyer gallery
What to expect? Dishabille chic with injections of opulence - random tables, chairs, teetering piles of old magazines and curly armed velvet sofas are complemented by monolithic fireplaces, floor-to-ceiling windows and sweeping drapes. Outside is a breezy walled garden.
What to book? The White bedroom. Spare but not Spartan, crunchy white linen and choice pieces of West Comish art. Gauzy, loose weave curtains hang at the window, which has a blissful outlook over rooftops to the sea.
What to bring? The biogs of Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth or anything by DH Lawrence who were all part of the St Ives set in some way. Wardrobe-wise, make sure you pack something drapey to waft artfully about the club in. And pack a good pair of cleated-sole boots for pounding over the wave-lashed coast.

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
The Grouch by the sea.
A convivial artists club-cum-gallery on the Comish coast, with driftwood bar, is now home to a family of survivors, writes Anne Boston.