For art lovers St. Ives Tate gallery above Porthmeor beach is the place for school of painters. St. Ives welcomes tourists with warmth and friendliness.

St Ives is a seaside town and civil parish in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance, and west of Camborne. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing as an industry. The decline in fishing, however, has caused a shift in commercial emphasis and the town is now primarily a holiday resort. St Ives was incorporated by Royal charter in 1639.

The legendary origins of St Ives are attributed to the arrival of the Irish Saint Ia, in the 5th Century AD. The parish church in St Ives still bears the name of this saint, and the name St Ives itself is believed to be a later anglicized corruption of that name.

The town was the site of a particularly notable atrocity during the Prayer Book rebellion of 1549. The English Provost Marshal came to St Ives and invited the mayor, John Payne, to lunch at an inn. He asked the mayor to have the gallows erected during the course of the lunch. Afterwards the mayor and the Provost Marshall walked down to the gallows; the Provost Marshall then ordered the mayor to mount the gallows. The mayor was then hanged for being a Roman Catholic.

Modern St Ives came with the railway in 1877, the St Ives Bay branch line from St Erth. With it came the new generation of Victorian seaside holidaymakers. Much of the town was built during the latter part of the 19th century. The railway, which winds along the cliffs and bays, survived the Beeching axe and has become a tourist attraction itself.

The St Ives artists
In 1928, the artists Alfred Wallis, Ben Nicholson and Christopher Wood met at St Ives and laid the foundation for the artists' colony of today. In 1939, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Naum Gabo settled in St Ives. In 1993, a branch of the Tate Gallery, the Tate St Ives, opened here. The Tate also looks after the Barbara Hepworth Museum and her sculpture garden. It was the wish of the late sculptor to leave her work on public display in perpetuity. See also list of St. Ives artists. The town also attracted artists from overseas like Piet Mondrian who let the landscape influence their work.

St Ives Society of Artists and The Penwith Society
Prior to the 1940's the majority of artists in St Ives and further afield in West Cornwall belonged to the St Ives Society of artists however events in the late 1940's led to a growing dispute between the between the abstract and figurative artists within the group. In 1948 the abstract faction broke away from the St Ives Society forming the Penwith Society of artists led by Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson.

Festivals
St Ives is home to 3 celebrations of interest. John Knill a former Mayor of St Ives constructed the Knill Steeple a granite monument overlooking the town of St Ives. In 1797 John Knill laid down instructions for the celebration of the Knill Ceremony which was to take place every 5 years on the 25th of July. The ceremony itself involves The Mayor of St Ives, a customs officer, and a vicar - accompanied by 2 widows and 10 girls who should be the 'daughters of fishermen, tinners, or seaman'. For more details see Article about John Knill

A second celebration of perhaps greater antiquity is St Ives feast which is a celebration of the founding of St Ives by St Ia and takes place on the Sunday and Monday nearest February 3rd every year. The day itself includes a civic procession to Venton Ia or the well of St Ia and other associated activities however, it is most notable for being one of the 2 surviving examples of Cornish Hurling (however in a more gentle format than its other manifestation in St Columb Major).

A third festival is the St Ives May Day which is a modern revival of May Day Customs that were at one time common throughout the west of Cornwall.

Transport
St Ives railway station is linked to the Paddington to Penzance main rail route via the St Ives branch line which runs regular services to St Erth station. A Park-and-Ride facility for visitors to St Ives runs from Lelant Saltings railway station, which was opened on 27 May 1978 specifically for this purpose.

The town also has regular services via National Express Coach to London Victoria, Heathrow and numerous other destinations throughout the UK. The nearest airports to St Ives are Newquay and Plymouth.