Templemore Swimming Baths

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An almost symmetrical Victorian Public Baths complex of red-brick built 1891 to designs by Robert Graeme-Watt. Located to the east side of Templemore Avenue, east of Belfast city centre and comprising a symmetrical two-storey entrance block flanked by gabled male and female public baths and two swimming pools. Entrance block is rectangular on plan with return to rear; baths and pool form two flanking wings, boiler room with tall red-brick chimney connects the two wings to east, creating a central courtyard.

Entrance block has hipped natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and finials; vented lantern with spire to centre of ridgeline surmounted by weathervane. Pitched natural slate roof to baths lit by a full-length ridge lantern terminated by a raised gable. Boiler house is partially slated with plastic sheeting. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on brick corbel course. Walling is Flemish-bonded red-brick on a chamfered brick plinth; string course between floors and at sill level, egg-and-dart frieze band to entrance block; attached lettering reads “CORPORATION PUBLIC BATHS”. Windows to entrance block are segmental-headed 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash in chamfered surrounds with flat brick arches and projecting sandstone sills. Windows to adjoining flanking baths are timber Y-tracery with decorative stained and leaded glass panel to top.

The entrance block faces west and comprises central two-storey block five windows wide to first floor (grouped to centre). Ground floor has three windows to centre flanked by two recessed open porches. Porches are accessed via tiled and terrazzo masonry steps and are framed by round-headed arched openings in moulded brick surrounds. Flanking the entrance block are two linking bays each two windows wide, connecting the gabled male and female baths (described below).

The north elevation is abutted at ground floor by the linking bay (see later) and is blank to first floor.

The east (rear) elevation is abutted to centre by the two-storey return; window to first floor left and right. The return is flanked at ground floor by two flat-roof extensions; that to left has a segmental-headed timber-mullioned window with transom light; that to right has a half-panelled timber door with side-lights and transom light in round-headed surround. Return has window at first floor landing at left and landing level to right; timber-sheeted door to ground floor left; north elevation has a window at first floor right; south elevation has a window at first floor left.

The south elevation is abutted at ground floor by the linking bay and is blank to first floor.

The flanking male and female baths each have round-headed timber Y-tracery window (stained and leaded top light) in rebated surround to gable and are abutted at south and north elevations respectively by the linking bays which are three windows wide; that to left has an additional two diminutive square-headed windows to gable and five segmental-headed blind openings to north elevation. The right bath is abutted to south by a red-brick extension with hipped roof, having segmental-headed triple window to west elevation and five segmental-headed openings to south elevation. Both are abutted to east by the gabled swimming pools (higher).

Gabled swimming pools each have raised parapet to west gable with two oculi to centre of gable. North elevation of left bath has seven round-headed blind openings with impost moulding flanked by two smaller openings; east gable has paired timber Y-tracery windows with horizontal glazing bars; single- storey abutment to ground floor adjoining a two-storey care-takers accommodation (not accessed). The 2 storey Caretaker's house is L shaped on plan; red brick with single and paired painted timber sliding sash windows; decorative brick string courses between first and second floor and at second floor window sills level. It has a natural slate pitched roof and central clay brick chimney stack.

The right pool is abutted to east gable by a three-storey extension known by locals as the Ice Box due to the freezing temperatures experiences by the users in the ground floor changing rooms and on the stepped seating gallery to one of he pools.(later); This is a simply detailed structure in red clay brick with the gabled east elevation having a pair of semi circular blind openings on the third floor and 5 paired timber sliding sash windows on each of the floors below. There are 3 brick string courses at the higher level. The south elevation has an irregular arrangement of paired sliding sash windows. There are similar windows to the North elevation, a set of external steps and a large oil tank obscuring the ground floor.

Right pool south elevation mirrors the north elevation of left pool.

Boiler house to centre of complex has tall brick chimney to centre at ridgeline. West elevation is flanked by two two-storey L-shaped blocks with lean-to roof; timber door to centre surmounted by three square windows. The east gable is abutted by a gabled extension; oculus and modern timber-sheeted door to gable flanked by recessed blind openings.

Setting:
Corner-sited in a largely residential area, surrounded by early nineteenth-century two-bay two-storey terraced red-brick houses. Red-brick wall with masonry coping to front topped by metal railings with gates to entrances. Red-brick boundary wall to north; large cleared site to south. Enclosed to east by a red-brick boundary wall with coping stones topped by metal railings. Rear yard accessed via red-brick gate piers with pointed masonry caps and supporting metal gates. Courtyard has mature shrubs and a Victorian water feature comprising octagonal metal-framed pool on a decorative shaft with three painted metal cranes on a plinth; stone cherub on plinth to centre of pool.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Flemish-bonded red-brick
Windows: Timber-framed sliding sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

In the second half of the Nineteenth Century, Belfast grew at a greater rate than anywhere else in either Great Britain or Ireland. In 1800 its population had been less than 20,000. In 1851 there were 97,000, and in 1901 the Census counted 349,180 citizens. As in the rest of the burgeoning town, more and more people packed into a growing network of terraced streets. Provision of washing facilities in urban areas had been a voluntary concern before the passing of the Baths and Washhouses Act of 1846. This allowed local authorities to raise funds to build public washing facilities at a time when it was becoming clear that cholera and other infectious diseases posed a great danger to life and health unless people were provided with the means of keeping themselves clean.

The area of Ballymacarrett within Belfast became a busy industrial area, home to the large-scale industries of shipbuilding, rope making, machine works, distilling, and many others industires. A need to build public baths within the area became apparent and from this a redbrick Public Baths on Templemore Avenue in East Belfast was constructed in 1891 designed by Robert Graeme Watt, a Belfast based architect who was operating independently at that time.

The ‘Ballymacarrett Baths’ as they were known, were opened in January 1893, as part of the series of similar facilities built by the Corporation at west Peter’s Hill (1877), south Ormeau Avenue (1888), and the north Falls Road (1896). The contract for construction of the Public Baths on Templemore Avenue record that the work was undertaken for the Corporation of Belfast by Watt at the estimated cost of £8,300; the Irish Builder noted that the baths plumbing and gasfittings were installed by Riddel & Co. (PRONI; Irish Builder, Vol. 33, 1 May 1891, p. 106; Dictionary of Irish Architects).

The baths first appear on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey maps in 1902 which depicts the building as a rectangular structure situated at the corner of Templemore Avenue and Keatley Street, and adjoining the site of the street’s hospital; the design of the Templemore Avenue Public Baths is similar to the other surviving baths on Ormeau Avenue, both possessing two swimming pools connected by a two-storey central administration building. The first superintendent of the baths was a Mr. Hamilton Smyth who resided in the two-storey redbrick caretaker’s dwelling on Glenmore Street to the rear of the facilities (Belfast Street Directories – 1901; 1918).

Construction of the Public Baths was contracted to end by August 1892 and in that year the baths first appear in the Annual Revisions, along with the caretaker’s house, valued at a total of £300. There was no alteration to this amount until 1915 by which time the Public Baths had been increased in value to £370; in 1921 the value was further increased to £460. By the first General Revaluation of 1935 the baths were valued at £620; later increased through inflation to £2,100 by 1956 when the Second Revaluation began. Under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act the baths on Templemore Avenue were decreased in value to £1,680 although this was again increased to £2,000 in 1960.

Paul Larmour described the public baths as a ‘virtually intact survivor of the Victorian Age,’. It is a red-brick Renaissance-style building, the front of which is in appropriate scale with the fashionable residences which were being built in Templemore Avenue at the same time, surrounded by a grid of streets of parlour and kitchen houses.

The central block of the building was flanked by separate entrances, originally first and second class and, later, ladies and men’s, leading firstly to the slipper baths in their cubicles, and behind which were the two large halls for the first and second class swimming pools, with poolside dressing boxes. A small courtyard stood at the centre and beyond that, between the two pools, were the laundry and the boiler room, with rear access for the coal carts which brought the fuel to heat the water.

It is clear that the Corporation Baths were a socially important building in the late-19th century which not only provided the public in Ballymacarrett at that time with swimming pools for entertainment, but also facilities for bathing during a period when most homes possessed poor sanitation facilities (Larmour, p. 53). Filling a metal bath at home with warm water was a long process and the alternative of using the public baths was very popular. Aside from the use of the slipper baths for personal hygiene, the swimming pools provided increasingly important leisure activities. From the beginning they were designed to host swimming competitions and many of the large firms in the area formed the basis of swimming clubs, such as Queen’s Island, Sirocco, and Shorts. Further interest in swimming was encouraged when the sport was included in the modern Olympic Games which began in 1896.

Not long after it was built it became clear that, at 66 feet, the larger Templemore pool was not long enough for the swimming competitions which were thriving in municipal centres throughout the British Isles. In 1929, after over twenty years of
agitation, the Corporation decided to extend the pool to 75 feet and to construct a 150-seat gallery and other additional facilities. Many of the post-war generation recall learning to swim at Templemore Avenue, but by the 1980s private bathrooms were the norm and extensive new leisure facilities had been provided by the City Council. Use of the Baths had declined dramatically, although it remained the venue for some core groups of users such as specialist clubs.

In 1983 Belfast City Council’s decision to close Templemore Avenue Baths was met with opposition which led to positive action on behalf of a local group which was convinced of the building’s future potential. Eventually this resulted in the
formation of the Templemore Users Trust which, with financial assistance from the Council, took responsibility for the Victorian listed building which it now holds under a 25-year lease. Since its formation the Trust, in conjunction with the Council, slightly altered and renovated the Baths in 1996 during which the female swimming pool (south side) was converted into a fitness suite, sauna, and ancillary facilities in one of the old slipper bath areas. It has operated a group booking system for swimming which has created a niche clientele of schools, clubs and other groups which appreciate having dedicated use of the pool, which is functioning at almost full capacity.

The eastern extension to the Baths was not included in the renovation and is in a state of dilapidation although it still possesses some original features. The other Public Baths on the Ormeau Road has been converted into an Art Gallery; however the facility on Templemore Avenue continues to be used as a public swimming pool making it the only still functioning Victorian Baths in Belfast.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1902
2. PRONI OS/6/3/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1920-21
3. PRONI OS/6/3/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1931
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/20 – Annual Revisions 1882-1896
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/29 – Annual Revisions 1897-1905
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/4 – Annual Revisions 1906-1914
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/L/8 – Annual Revisions 1915-1930
8. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/12 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/30 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-1972
10. PRONI LA/7/29/C/B/9 – Contract for erection of Ballymacarrett Baths (26 May 1891)
11. Irish Builder, Vol. 33, 1 May 1891
12. Belfast Street Directories (1901; 1918)

Secondary Sources

1. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987. Patton, M., ‘Belfast: An illustrated yearbook’ Belfast: The Appletree Press Ltd., 1987.

Online Resources

1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
V. Authorship
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

An almost symmetrical Victorian Public Baths complex of red-brick built 1891 to designs by Robert Graeme-Watt, located to the east side of Templemore Avenue and comprising asymmetrical two-storey entrance block flanked by gabled male and female public baths, two swimming pools, caretaker's house and boundary walling and railings. The building was partially restored in 1996, retaining its original function but with the female baths to south converted into a modern gym. The original layout and many furnishings and fittings have been retained and much of the original character has survived. Architectural detailing, including the original tall red-brick chimney, is largely intact. One of only two surviving examples in the city of a Victorian Baths Complex (the other being the Ormeau Baths – now functioning as an art gallery) Templemore is particularly significant as it has retained its original use. Of significant architectural and historic interest, the building is also an important local landmark and is of important social interest to the local community.