On Bude Sea Pool

Leica M3 and Elmar in the Haze….

Unusual Things

Bude Sea Pool sits at the northern end of Summerleaze Beach like something the Victorians built and then forgot to stop maintaining, which is roughly what happened. It is a tidal pool, meaning the sea fills it twice a day whether anyone has asked it to or not, crashing over the retaining wall in a manner that suggests the Atlantic has strong opinions about swimming pool design and is not shy about sharing them. The water, refreshed by every incoming tide, sits at whatever temperature the ocean has decided is appropriate that morning, which in Cornwall is usually somewhere between "bracing" and "actionable in a court of law." None of this deters the locals, who arrive in dressing gowns with the calm of people queuing for a bus, ease themselves in without comment, and emerge twenty minutes later looking spiritually improved in a way that no heated leisure centre in Britain has ever managed to replicate.

What I find most admirable about the place is its complete indifference to being a tourist attraction. There is no swipe-card entry, no branded juice bar, no laminated sign explaining the pool's "wellness journey." There is a wall, some barnacles, a slipway, and a view of Bude that has presumably looked much the same since someone first decided that a natural rock pool needed a bit of concrete encouragement. Families picnic on the surrounding rocks with the studied nonchalance of people ignoring an incoming wave that is about to end their picnic. Somewhere a child is always crying about the cold, and somewhere else an elderly man in Speedos is doing lengths as if this were the most reasonable thing in the world, which, this being Cornwall, it apparently is.