Why winter is the perfect time to visit this coastal UK town

On the clearest days, St Ives seems like a trick of the eye. All golden beaches and cliffs etched with whitewashed cottages, it feels more like an Italian fishing village than an English coastal town. That incongruity has made the Cornish enclave one of Britian’s most popular summer escapes, but its charms don’t fade as winter sets in. Rather than hibernating, the town exhales. Its cobblestoned streets see less footfall, while its blissfully empty beaches hum with the meditative crashing of Atlantic waves. The drama of the landscape was enough to lure romantic painter JMW Turner here in 1811, and by the 1940s, artists such as abstractionist painter Ben Nicholson and sculptors Naum Gabo and Barbara Hepworth had made St Ives one of Britain’s leading avant-garde outposts. It remains a creative hub to this day, with winter’s stilled pace only adding to the cosiness of its galleries, bars and restaurants.

What can I see and do in winter?

Make for the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden — the artist’s former home and studio. Her life is charted through photographs, tools and small-scale works, while the garden is a lush tangle of subtropical plants, monumental bronzes and stone carvings. It’s a five-minute walk from here to Tate St Ives, built on the site of a former gasworks overlooking Porthmeor Beach. The gallery hosts a rolling programme of contemporary exhibitions, while the permanent collection celebrates the town’s modernist heritage with works from figures like Kandinsky and Miró.

Fancy something more hands-on? Tarquin’s Gin School runs daytime workshops on the upper level of its Fore Street shop. The Cornish distillery teaches visitors the basics then lets them distill their own batch in a copper still. You’ll choose from more than 50 botanicals — including cardamom, dried lemon peel and eucalyptus leaves — before sealing and naming your bespoke bottle. After dark, cosy up in one of the booths at nearby R Bar, a speakeasy-style club where mixologists serve up rum cocktails to a soundtrack of live jazz.

(UK gin distillery experiences that are worth the journey.)

Where’s a good place to grab a bite?

The food scene in St Ives stretches far beyond Cornish pasties and fish and chips. If it’s lunch you’re after, walk to the end of the harbour and grab a table at white-stone Silco, a family-run bar and kitchen serving everything from Sri Lankan lentil fritters with chilli jam to poached plums topped with boozy mascarpone cream — doused in the team’s signature Plum & Bourbon Liqueur. Silco began life as a drinks brand, producing spirts like St Ives Gin and the tangy Rhubarb Shrub Liqueur. Both go very well in a spritz, best enjoyed while watching the fishing boats bobbing along the quay.

Come evening, head to St Eia, a small plates wine bar that honours the Irish princess who gave the town its name. On cold winter nights, its long windows fog over, leaving candlelight flickering through the opaque glass. The produce is British but the menu leans French, offering up dishes like onion soup topped with toasted sourdough, smoked sausage from Sussex’s Coombeshead Farm and the most indulgent pot au chocolat north of Paris. Alternatively, Ardor on Fore Street serves Mediterranean-inspired tapas in its buzzy, low-lit dining room. Smaller bites include jamón croquetas and chicken shawarma with tzatziki, while mains range from grilled octopus to dry-aged beef cuts and golden rotisserie chicken basted in brandy.

Where should I stay in St Ives?

Just a few steps from the station, Harbour View House lives up to its name, looking onto the lighthouse at the tip of the breakwater. The boutique hotel’s nine rooms pair sleek furnishings with wood and wicker accents, while the downstairs panoramic restaurant serves fresh handmade pasta. Otherwise, book a stay at Carbis Bay Hotel, reachable via the coastal path running parallel to the railway. The beachfront hotel comes with an outdoor pool, heated jacuzzi and a clifftop sauna overlooking the beach. It’s also the spot for a spa treatment or a cheeky cocktail at Walter’s on the Beach, the hotel’s sea-view bar and restaurant.