Huddled together in fleece-lined beach robes while other family members play football nearby, Kate and Tilly Perrett look as if they might be regretting taking their summer holiday in St Ives, Cornwall. The wind is nippy, the sky is ominously grey and Kate’s sunglasses haven’t been called into action much all week.
“The weather’s been touch and go every day, but we don’t let it bother us at all, we’re still having fun,” says Kate, with a broad smile.
“We been on lots of beach holidays around the UK and Ireland, and we’ve learned from previous holidays that you always have to come well prepared. We’ve got dry robes to keep us warm and shield us from the wind. Luckily, St Ives is the kind of place you can enjoy even if the weather’s rubbish.”
The resort, which attracts 220,000 visitors annually, has endured a squelchy start to the summer holiday season, and although the weather on Friday afternoon was moderate, Storm Antoni, which landed on Saturday, brought gusting winds.
It means the beaches around St Ives are all red-flagged. A local surf school owner, Harris Rothschild, says: “It’s been blowing a hoolie all morning. It feels like February out there, not August.
“The swell is combining with the wind to give a wave height of about 10-15ft so it’s massive, but it’s not good for tourists and not even good for experienced surfers.
“The lifeguards have been working so hard to keep the beaches open recently but there’s nothing they can do today. Fortunately, it’s just a summer storm that should be gone by this evening.”
Despite the weather, the town’s cobbled streets are clogged with pedestrians on Friday, and wide-eyed seagulls are hovering around part of town known to locals as “downalong”, waiting to steal any unguarded food.
Down by the water’s edge, Em Rathbone is watching Annie and Ezra as they play together in the sea. “It’s been pretty wet all week, but that hasn’t stopped us getting out and splashing around,” Rathbone says. “You’ve got to make the most of it while you’re down here, haven’t you? I’m freezing, but the kids are loving it.”
The sea temperature is a reasonable 15.5C – a fraction less than the air temperature – but Annie emerges from the white water and announces that it feels much colder. “It felt like the Mediterranean last time we went in,” she claims. “No, it did not!” Em scoffs with disbelief as she follows the children up the beach. “Right, now we’re off to play in a puddle,” she says.
Visitors spend more than £85m a year in St Ives, and tourism provides 2,800 jobs. For a town that’s so dependent on peak season trade, desirable weather and water conditions are crucial.
Peter Waller, who runs Willy Wallers Ice Cream Factory, says his income has suffered this week and is hoping for more favourable conditions as the summer progresses. “We only took £10 before lunchtime the other day, and we’re about a third down on business this week,” he says. “We’ve had sideways rain and winds howling in here this week, but thankfully Friday has been a lot calmer so far and we’ve got customers queueing up again.”
Gift shop owner Safie Mackie isn’t hoping for an August heatwave. “It’s actually better for us if it’s not too sunny, otherwise everyone’s on the beach all day,” she says. “For us, it needs to be a happy medium so that people are walking around the streets shopping.”
Both business owners agree that St Ives feels quieter than normal, not that you’d know it from the long waits for car parking spaces around town. Waller says: “In general, it doesn’t seem as busy as it did in pre-Covid times. Maybe that’s because people have started going overseas again for their holidays.”
Darren and Rosanna Price, who are sharing ice creams with their sons Dillon and Luke, say they have no regrets about not holidaying in Europe. “Some of our friends are abroad at the moment. From looking at their pictures, you’d think it’d be more relaxing than here, but you never know,” says Rosanna. “It can be pretty stressful trying to apply suncream to kids every five minutes!”
Local caricature artist Scott suggests that good weather is all in the mind. “I believe you can will the weather to be whatever you want it to be,” he says with a wry smile. The fishing umbrellas propped against the wall beside him suggest he’s either fibbing or wishing for more rain.
As dinnertime approaches on Friday, there’s a surge in activity around the restaurants and takeaways ranged along the waterfront. A smattering of people elect for outdoor tables but most head inside, admiring the views across the bay through panes of glass.
On the slipway next to the RNLI station, a weary looking group are eating fish and chips. They’ve been camping all week and say the intermittent downpours have ruined their experience.
“The tent leaked, we couldn’t go into the sea half the time because the red flags were out, and it’s been quite stressful, so we’re ready to go home,” one of them says ruefully. “If a seagull stole our food now, that’d really finish the holiday off.”
