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Pools
Dulwich leisure centre
Opened 1892
45 East Dulwich Road, London SE22 9AN Listed Grade II
It's all done. Many thanks to all who turned out in Dulwich to celebrate the end of the 1000 year swim!
From the list description:
Public baths and wash houses, converted to leisure centre.
1890-1892. By Spalding and Cross. Red brick with stone
dressings. Tiled roof and brick chimneystacks. Queen Anne
style.
EXTERIOR: symmetrical composition comprising centre of 7 bays
and wings of 2 windows each. Central hipped section has clock
tower, clock face with apron below and curved open pediment
above and octagonal cupola with weathervane. 2 gabled dormers.
Bracket eaves cornice and panel with lettering "Dulwich Public
Baths".
1st-floor windows are sashes without glazing bars flanked by
paired, fluted and rusticated pilasters to central section.
Ground floor has wide cornice with 2 shell-moulded hoods...
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Health Hydro, Swindon
Opened 1891
Milton Road, Swindon, Wiltshire Listed Grade II
What an amazing thing the Swindon Health Hydro is. And it's a hidden gem: passing it on Faringdon Road you get no sense that the building is open, and it looks more like a railway works than a swimming baths. The main entrance to the swimming pool was on this front, sheltered by an iron and glass canopy which is thought to have been removed sometime in WW2. It's all in red brick, in a stripped down Queen Anne style, and was designed by local architect JJ Smith, and opened in 1891.
It's an enormous complex: not just two swimming baths, there were washing and Turkish baths, a dispensary, all sorts of other medical facilities (mainly surgical) including dentistry and at one time even a hairdressing salon! It was one of the most modern facilities of its time, pre-dating integrated health centres.
And all was paid for by the workers of the Great Western Railway through their Medical Friendly Society. Compulsory deductions were made from their wages, but in... Read More...
Kings Hall Leisure Centre, Hackney
Opened 1897
Lower Clapton Road, Hackney, London Listed Grade II
From the list entry:
Public swimming pool and baths. 1894-97. By Edward Harnor and Frederick Pinches. Portland stone front with slate roof.
PLAN: deep rectangular site, widening outwards to rear. Three-storey entrance and admin block to front. Central spine of changing rooms with three main areas on either side: two to left formerly pools, now sports halls, large one to right with main pool.
EXTERIOR: Free Renaissance style front of three storeys with attic. Irregular four bay front, 3rd pedimented bay breaking forward and wider. Front balustrade with ornamental railings above. Rusticated ground floor. Pedimented Ionic doorcases, reached via steps, with arched entrances in 2nd (2nd from left) and 4th (right-hand) bays. Arched windows in 1st and 3rd bay with mullions and transoms. Private entrance to upper floor accommodation to right of 1st bay. Frieze at first floor level. First storey with four light windows, moulded hoods over, to each bay except...
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St Luke's pool, Brighton
Opened 1903
St Luke's Terrace, Brighton, East Sussex Listed Grade II on 4 January 1995
Many schools in the early 20th century had their own swimming pools, but this is the first one I've been in. The poor physical state of the nation's young men signing up to join the Boer War had come as something of a shock, and so healthy exercise was encouraged.
St Luke's Pool is part of an impressive complex which includes a board school and caretaker's house, all designed by Thomas Simpson, and constructed 1900-3. There's also a fine set of railings out front which together make this part of a very dignified composition, and quite a landmark in this part of Brighton.
The pool is still well-used by local school children, but is now administratively detached from the school and run by DC Leisure on behalf of Brighton and Hove City Council. Two adjoining former classrooms have been incorporated to provide changing rooms (this would have originally been in individual cubicles around the perimeter of the pool hall).
The pool itself has been... Read More...
Tunstall Pool
Opened 1889
Tunstall Pool, Greengates Street, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire Listed Grade II on 15 March 1993
See
Amy Edwards, '1000 year swim comes to Stoke', BBC Stoke and Staffordshire website, 21 August 2008. Includes interview with BBC Radio Stoke's Breakfast Show presenter Pete Morgan (4mins 42 seconds).
'Historian dives in to mark age of swimming baths', The Sentinel, (Stoke on Trent), 7 August 2008
Lucas Vale, '1,000 year swim', The Sentinel (Stoke on Trent), 13 August 2008. (video 1min 24 seconds)
Moseley Road Swimming Pool, Birmingham
Baths opened 1907; pool in 1908
Moseley Road, Balsall Health, Birmingham, West Midlands Listed Grade II* on 8 July 1982
From the list entry:
The Free Library opened in 1895, designed by Jethro A. Cossins and Peacock. The Baths were added to the south and opened in 1907 by William Hale and Son, Architect, with Job Cox as Superintendant Engineer and W. & J. Webb as the builders. Red brick with terracotta dressings and slate roof.
The LIBRARY consists of a large hall flanked to the north by a prominent entrance tower.
EXTERIOR: Flemish and Renaissance details combined with some Arts and Crafts motifs, all lavishly executed in buff terracotta contrasted with red brick walls. Deep terracotta plinth carried up to level of 3 great hall windows with mullioned and double transomed depressed arch lights (leaded with good decorative work to heads). These windows are contained in terracotta banded pier arcade with inner arch in moulded terracotta, spaced terracotta voussoirs carried into brick outer arch. Above the windows the parapeted wall head is raised in terracotta...
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Aston University sports centre
Circa 1902
Woodstock Street, Birmingham, West Midlands Formerly City of Birmingham public baths Listed Grade II on 8 July 1982
From the list entry:
Swimming Baths for City of Birmingham, now Aston University pool and gymnasium. c.1926, with 1902 core. Arthur McKewan, ARIBA for City of Birmingham. Brown brick with stone plinth and stone dressings, steep slate hipped roofs and brick parapet with stone copings.
EXTERIOR: WOODCOCK STREET elevation has entrance block to right with paired 2-storey wings linked by arcaded entrance to open courtyard. Each wing with wide advanced quoins and central window bay of stone panels above and below windows in brick frames with stone square corner details and 'X', metal mullions; steep hipped roofs behind parapets with rusticated chimney to each angle. Central arch has modern sign over stone plaque, 'CITY OF BIRMINGHAM PUBLIC BATHS'. Beyond this, main entrance has stone portal with bay leaf decoration to architrave, circles at corner and keyblock. Above this, stone plaque with the arms of Birmingham and 'AD 1925'. To left, tall single...
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Manningham Baths, Bradford
Opened 25 July 1904
Carlisle Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire Listed Grade II on 21 June 2007
This is the most exceptional of the baths I have visted so far. Not because it has elaborate decoration, stained glass and very high quality finishes. It doesn't.
Its interest lies in its very survival. Baths like this must have been erected in their hundreds around 1900, all over the country, but there are virtually none left today in this intact state. Sure there have been some alterations here, but none which detract significantly from the experience of swimming in an 'ordinary' Edwardian baths -- nowadays an 'extraordinary' experience. The most noticeable change is the roof over the pool which has been reconfigured, no longer boasting a lantern.
It is perhaps easier to appreciate the 'showpiece' baths such as the Victoria Baths in Manchester, and Moseley Road in Birmingham. Both of these are listed Grade II*, but you can only swim in half of Moseley Road, and not at all in Victoria Baths, despite its victory in the BBC TV Restoration...
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Queensbury Pool, Bradford
Opened 1891
Victoria Hall, Queensbury Sand Beds, Bradford, West Yorks Listed Grade II on 7 March 1985
Like much else in Queensbury, the baths were given by the local mill owners, the Foster family, whose firm is very much in business still today.
They are part of the Victoria Hall, designed by TH and F Healey of Bradford and built by local labour. This attractive stone building is in the Queen Anne style, and was put up to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, hence its name. The date 1887 can be seen in the rainwater heads, but the baths themselves were not completed until 1891.
On the front of the building are two plaques either side of a coat of arms. Is this Fosters? Certainly there are busts of the brothers John and William still in the entrance hall. The plaques show commerce and industry on the one side, and the arts on the other, no doubt intended to convey the message that successful business brings with it the opportunity for the arts to flourish as well.
The... Read More...
Batley baths
Opened 1893
Cambridge Street, Batley, West Yorkshire. Listed Grade II on 11 February 1993
Batley is a beautiful town and Batley baths, designed by local architect Walter Hanstock, are a most suitable adornment to it.They are in the golden stone typical of the area, and their chief glory is the entrance elevation, in a late Queen Anne style with some top quality carving. There is some stained glass in the front windows, and some chunky turned wood trusses in what is now the gym. Although the baths have been altered and extended over the years, the main pool hall is still in use. The other one, slightly down hill, is now the sports hall.
Further down Cambridge Street is Market Place, an impressive agora fronted by a number of public buildings: the Town Hall (1905, by Walter Hanstock & Son, serious on the outside but with some nice art nouveau tiles inside, obscured by paint), the Carnegie Library (1906, again by Hanstock), the (former) Post Office now, alas, Roberto's Pizzeria, and Batley Central Methodist Church (the Zion Methodist... Read More...
Chelsea Sports Centre
Opened circa 1900
Chelsea Manor Street, Chelsea, London SW3 Listed Grade II
From the list description:
Circa 1900. Public Baths. Red brick, stone dressings. English Renaissance. Nine windows wide, with 7 window centre of 3 storeys with dormers, and lower wings. Symmetrical. Three rusticated, square-headed doors. Windows square-headed, sashed to first and second floors. Main cornice above first floor. Carved panels in stone and brick. Forms part of Town Hall/Vestry Hall complex, in the same style.
See the local authority website. (Royal Borough of Kensington and Chlesea)
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Camberwell baths
Opened 1891
Artichoke Place, Camberwell, London Listed Grade II on 27 July 1993
Camberwell Baths is apparently the earliest surviving public baths (1891) by Henry Spalding and Alfred WS Cross who came to specialise in this building type. Cross later wrote the key text on the subject, Public Baths and Wash-Houses A Treatise on Their Planning, Design, Arrangement, and Fitting (Batsford, 1906).They certainly made a show with their entrance elevation. It is a large site, but with only a relatively small front, tucked away down Artichoke Place so it needed to make an impression. This range is only a room or so deep; the pool halls themselves are single-storey and run back behind. There is a plaque on the front between the doors recording the names of all involved. The gilded architectural lettering beneath the cornice is very handsome.
The pay box in the lobby is original as are, by the looks of it, the floor tiles. But what about the stained glass 'Public Baths' sign? Inside, the pool hall has elaborate balcony fronts but... Read More...
Beverley Road baths, Hull
Opened 29 May 1905
Beverley Road, Kingston Upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire Listed Grade II on 4 July 1990
Beverley Road Baths is an impressive monument to turn-of-the-century civic pride. A central square tower topped by an octagonal cupola marks out the entrance, and another smaller cupola with a copper dome turns the corner into Epworth Street. To the right, the gabled end of the pool hall, decorated with a Palladian window. This is a baths complex which wants to be noticed!
Inside there's a very impressive ceramic plaque commemorating the opening of the baths on 29 May 1905, set in an architectural niche. Does anyone do such elaborate memorials nowadays? Even more unusual is the matching one opposite, which incorporates a brass portrait relief of John Shaw, then chairman of the Baths Committee (since 1891). It's by Edward Caldwell Spruce (1849-1923), a Leeds sculptor. He had been a modeller for Burmantofts Pottery before studying in Paris, so I wonder if this is all Burmantofts ceramic?
In the foyer there's nice chunky plasterwork, good tiles and stained glass. The... Read More...
Bramley baths, Leeds
Opened 1904
Broad Lane, Bramley, Leeds, West Yorkshire Listed Grade II on 11 September 1996
Well, this was a great start to the 1000 year swim! There has been so much interest in the event from national and local media, and people are keen to tell me about why this pool matters to them.Bramley Baths is the last open survivor of eight pools built by Leeds City Council from 1899-190, and I could see as soon as I got there why it has been listed. A handsome building in local stone, its chimney is a local landmark. The facade is decorated with the city coat of arms, and has the owl finials of the city, reflecting the strong sense of pride which brought these community facilities into being.
Designed by the architect J. Lane Fox, the baths were opened on 17 October 1904, and re-opened after refurbishment on 20 April 1992. That was a good job in that it preserved so much of the character of the building, which has some beautiful stained glass and the original oak ticket desk in the entrance.
The outside of the building today still looks... Read More...
Latest Entries
- Dulwich leisure centre
- Health Hydro, Swindon
- Kings Hall Leisure Centre, Hackney
- St Luke's pool, Brighton
- Tunstall Pool
- Moseley Road Swimming Pool, Birmingham
- Aston University sports centre
- Manningham Baths, Bradford
- Queensbury Pool, Bradford
- Batley baths
- Chelsea Sports Centre
- Camberwell baths
- Beverley Road baths, Hull
- Bramley baths, Leeds
