St Ives – picturesque fishing village with quaint alleys and harbour in the west of Cornwall. Artist colony with a variety of workshops, studios and galleries of which, the most famous is the Tate St Ives.
St Ives is one of the most important locations in the world of Rosamunde Pilcher. Here she spend her childhood and youth. Together with her sister Lalage she often took the train from Lelant to St Ives to go swimming in Porthminster Bay. Rosamunde’s mother Helen was a member of the St Ives Art Club which is why there were so many bohemien and artistic people around her.
In the novels of Rosamunde Pilcher you will encounter St Ives all the time – but renamed as “Porthkerris”. The place is still easy to identify - It was here that Penelpe, the heroine of "The Shell Seekers", spent her childhoodand where she returns after a light heart attack. On the harbour is where Ben Litton has his studio, who was visited by his daughter from America in “Another View”. His second living room is the Sliding Tackle, modelled on the Sloop Inn, a 14th century St Ives pub. The Tregenna Castle Hotel is called Castle Hotel in her novels. In „The Day of the Storm“ it is where Rebecca Bayliss stays.
The German TV crew use St Ives a lot, although in the summer months, they relocate to other locations as the town is simply too busy. A lot of scenes have been filmed here since the start of the series in 1993: Porthminster Café was where the coffee shop scenes in Voices in Summer and Summer Nights were shot.
In Tregenna Castle Emma Litton meets her future step-mother in „Another View“. It was the background to many scenes in “Coming Home”, “The Day of the Storm” and “Carousel”. In one of the last filmings, “Amazing Grace”, the company used Smeaton’s Pier to create a café scene.
Information provided by www.visit-westcornwall.com
