Ormeau Baths Gallery

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey symmetrical Queen-Anne style former Victorian swimming baths built c.1890 to the designs of Robert Graeme Watt; renovated and extended to gallery and commercial space in 1996 by architects Twenty-Two-over-Seven. A complex of rectangular blocks to the side and rear of the square-plan three-bay entrance block; boiler room and large chimney adjacent to the rear; all flanked by two modern blocks. Located on Ormeau Avenue south of the city centre; opposite BBC Broadcasting House (HB26/30/106).

Natural slate hipped roof with leaded hips; tall red brick chimneys; cast-iron ogee moulded gutters with circular downpipes. Red brick walling laid to Flemish bond; moulded plinth/string/cornice and corbel courses; red sandstone dressings and carvings. Timber casement windows; red brick surrounds with chamfered jambs, segmental-arched heads and moulded sandstone cills. Timber double-leaf doors with upper glazed panel; side lights with aprons and over lights.

The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged. Central projecting bay with sandstone pediment bearing the cities coat-of-arms; three windows to each floor with three terracotta panels; dentilled cavetto string course and terracotta egg-and-dart cornice. Flanking entrance porches detailed with round-headed brick openings, sandstone capitals and carved sandstone spandrels with moulded surrounds; surmounted by sandstone balustrade. Windows to first floor each side.

The east elevation has a single first floor window to the left. The ground floor is abutted by a single-storey single-bay block; hipped roof with louvered gablet; further abutted to the east by a long six-bay former individual bath block with matching roof style; lower eaves and ridge level; partially glazed roof at apex. The facades of each comprise elliptical arched blank arcade of five bays with blank oculi.

The rear elevation is completely abutted by a series of two-storey former service blocks including the chimney and the caretaker’s accommodation. The roofscape comprises a series of slate hipped roofs and a replacement pitched copper roof. The internal portion of the chimney is square plan rising to a tall circular external portion; the detailing includes paired ribbed sandstone courses at lower level; sandstone swags and panels mid-way, rising to further ribbed string course and drop dentilled corbel surmounted by a cupola on a second stage dentilled cornice. The south face of the service accommodation is abutted by a 1 ½ storey block with hipped-roof surmounted by gabled lantern; the elevation comprises triplet round-headed arches. The east and west cheeks of the service accommodation are abutted by double-height gabled former main swimming baths; pitched roof with raised lantern and clerestory glazing (the west bath has a fully glazed lantern). The north gables take the form of open-pediments; three bays wide; raised central bay with stepped apex embracing paired large round-headed windows with hood mouldings and decorative timber frames flanked by brick pilasters; blank round-headed arches to the side bays. The ground floors are abutted by the single-storey former individual bathing blocks; the respective east and west faces are abutted by two-storey, shallow barrel roofed modern red brick extensions. The south gables match the north and are abutted at ground floor by single-storey, flat-roofed blocks; the east is four bays wide with squat segmental arched blanks; the west is three bays wide with enlarge tripartite segmental-arched windows.

The right elevation matches the left elevation.

Setting:

The building is only partially bounded to the north and south by replacement railings. The front entrance is accessed by a series of steps flanked by recently planted trees. Immediately to the south and east are car parks beyond which is two-storey terraced residential and central fire station. To the west is the five-storey Fermanagh House. North of the site adjacent to the BBC Broadcasting House (HB26/30/106) is Linenhall Street with direct views to the rear of Belfast City Hall (HB26/50/001).

Roofing : Natural slate
Walling: Red brick
Windows: Timber casement
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

In May 1888 the Corporation of Belfast signed a contract with McLaughlin & Harvey to erect a Public Baths on Ormeau Avenue. This was to be constructed to designs by Robert Graeme Watt, a Belfast based architect who was operating independently at that time and later designed the public baths on Templemore Avenue in 1891 (HB26/08/003; Dictionary of Irish Architects). The contract stipulated that McLaughlin and Harvey complete construction of the Queen Anne Revival style building by the end of 1888, however the baths were not finished and opened until 1889; a Mr. John Robinson was contracted to supply 16 individual marble baths for the building (PRONI).

The Public Baths and adjoining caretaker’s house were originally valued at £350 and were owned by the Corporation of Belfast. The baths first appear on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1901-02 which depicts the building as an oblong structure. Watt’s design of the Ormeau baths was similar to the other surviving building on Templemore Avenue in that both possessed two swimming pools connected by a two-storey central administration block, although unlike its successor the Ormeau Baths was constructed in a distinctive Queen Anne Style. Patton records that the individual marble baths were housed in partitioned rooms in the single-storey front wings of the building (Patton, p. 254). By 1906 the value of the baths had increased to £635 (Windsor Ward was first valued separately from the rest of central Belfast in this year); however by 1915 this was deemed too high and was decreased to £400 in that year. By the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 the value of the baths had risen again to £650 although it is not clear what alterations caused this increase. The value continued to increase and in 1935 the first general revaluation of property in Northern Ireland was carried out resulting in a recalculation of the value of Ormeau Baths to £740; it was not until 1968 that the next valuation of the building was carried out at which time it had risen greatly, through inflation, to £2,000.

Watson records that the estimated cost of construction was £7690 8s. 10d. and that McLaughlin & Harvey submitted a very low tender, £300 less than the next lowest tender (Watson, p. 42). Both the Ormeau and Templemore Avenue baths were socially important buildings in the late-19th century when the vast majority of houses in Belfast possessed basic sanitation facilities and fewer still possessed bathrooms (Larmour, p. 53). However, Brett criticises the design of the structure as under-ambitious, describing it as a ‘regrettable brick building markedly inferior both in dignity and in voluptuousness to the baths of ancient Rome’ (Brett, p. 62).

The Baths were extended and partly refurbished in the 1950s, however by the 1970s one of the swimming pools developed cracks and had to be closed. No attempt to repair the swimming pool was attempted and by 1987 the Belfast City Council Leisure Services Committee announced that it intended to close the Public Baths. The Committee voted to close Ormeau Baths in 1988 and in that same year the Victorian building was listed.

The Public Baths on Templemore Avenue continues to be utilised as a public swimming pool; however the Ormeau Avenue baths was converted into an art gallery by Twenty-Two-over-Seven between 1990 and 1996 during which time two additional redbrick wings were added to the east and west of the building; the eastern wing of the building currently houses the Ormeau Baths Gallery. The building won an RIBA Award in 1998 and in the same year was the first beneficiary of the Ulster Architects Award (Modern Ulster Architecture, pp 110-111).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI LA/7/29/CB/6 – Contract between Messers McLaughlin & Harvey and the Corporation of Belfast 1888
2. PRONI OS/6/1/61/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/1/61/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1901-02
4. PRONI OS/6/1/61/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1931
5. PRONI OS/6/1/61/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1938
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/A/35 – Annual Revisions 1897-1905
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/2 – Annual Revisions 1906-1915
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/43/P/5 – Annual Revisions 1916-1930
9. PRONI VAL/3/B/3/21 – First General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1935
10. PRONI VAL/4/B/7/52 – Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland 1956-72
11. ‘Heritage Newsletter, Vol. 5’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1988.

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Belfast, 1700-1914’ Belfast: Friars Bush Press, 1985.
2. Evans, D ‘Modern Ulster Architecture’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2006.
3. Larmour, P., ‘Belfast: An illustrated architectural guide’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1987.
4. Patton, M., ‘Central Belfast: An historical gazetteer’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1993.
5. Watson, F. G ‘Building over the centuries: A history of McLaughlin & Harvey’ Belfast: Nicholas & Bass, 2010.
6. First Survey Record – HB26/30/041 (1988)

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
F. Structural System
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest
V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A two-storey symmetrical former Victorian swimming baths, built c.1890 to the designs of Robert Graeme Watt, located on Ormeau Avenue, south of Belfast city centre. The building has undergone major restorative work in the late twentieth century and has been sympathetically extended to accommodate Gallery and commercial space. Externally the former bath and caretaker's accommodation retains much of its historic fabric, displaying proportions and detailing typical of the Queen-Anne style. The modern interventions have been successfully executed to a high design standard, complementing the style and proportions of the original buildings. Internally the historic fabric has been substantially retained in prominent areas, and while the baths themselves no longer survive, evidence of the high quality original detailing, structure and fabric remain. Of significant historical and architectural interest, Ormeau Baths Gallery adds an element of architectural distinction in this part of Belfast.