The trouble with St Ives' artists' colony – archive, 8 August 1960

8 August 1960: Mixed together here in the same borough are about eight thousand laymen and what is claimed to be the largest artists community outside London

St Ives is frankly unsympathetic to the little colony of disillusionment in its midst. When several prime members, bearded and be-jeaned, broke down and asked for jobs at the local Employment Exchange, the manager hid his embarrassment and firmly told them to return when they had had a wash. "It would have been an insult "to send them round to an employer," he explained, with true local pride.

Related: The art of St Ives is no sideshow