| Dish Cloths & Netlofts |
|
|
|
Page 3 of 5 St Ives’ transition at the end of the 19th century resonates as we find ourselves at another crossroads today. As with the rest of Cornwall, mining and fishing, the basis of communal pride, are almost gone and beneath the veneer of changing shop fronts and restaurant menus lie questions regarding the possibilities for a regeneration of such pride and, crucially, imaginative life. Enterprise in St Ives has been carried into the 21st century largely by the Symons family who own a number of businesses, including the excellent Porthminster Café which exemplifies the way standards have risen to respond to greater cultural expectations since the opening of The Tate. But enterprise is consistently dominated by a small group below which bar, waiting staff and chambermaids are needed. St Ives has the highest concentration of minimum wage employees than any other town in Britain. Much employment is seasonal; a non-unionised turn over of staff comes and goes. Young people go away to university and stay away afterwards due to limited employment prospects and ever inflating property prices. Those who do come back often end up waiting the same tables, pulling the same pumps as they did during summer holidays. What are the St Ives boys to do?  An assortment of small boats await the tide in St Ives Harbour. Photo by Tom Skinner. Apart from tartan and haggis and other sentimental cultural constructions pre-devolutionary Scotland was famous for losing football matches, mass unemployment and violence. In his 1981 novel of modern Glasgow, Lanark, Alasdair Gray writes: Glasgow is a beautiful place. Why do we never remember that? Another character replies: “It’s because nobody imagines living here.” I could never remember that St Ives was a beautiful place. As a teenager I simply could not see it. After all, what is a view when there’s nothing to do? It was only when I went away, that moment in Manchester when I looked at the photograph of Alfred Wallis’ grave, that I remembered St Ives was a beautiful place. |
|||||||