Hugh Mason House / The Municipal Baths

Description

This information is taken from the statutory List as it was in 2001 and may not be up to date.

ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE HENRY SQUARE SJ 99 NW (south side)

4/9 Hugh Mason House (formerly listed as The Municipal 2/4/75 Baths)

G.V. II*

Municipal swimming baths, now industrial/office units. 1870- 71 and later. By Paull and Robinson. Flemish bond brick with slate roof and stone dressings. Large swimming hall with tower at north east and subsidiary accommodation at east.

Italian Romanesque style. 5-bay swimming hall has flat pilasters, a machicolated frieze below the eaves level and 3 round-headed windows with hoodmoulds and glazing bars in the upper storey of each bay. Other elevations are treated similarly. A lean-to against the ground floor has a central entrance feature with 2 arched door openings and numerous small arched lights under dripmoulds. The Lombardic tower has vent openings towards the top between bold machicolations. A similarly detailed chimney rises from the apex of the roof. To the left of the tower another elaborate entrance surround gives access to the lower 2-storey wing which has paired windows on the lower floor and 11 round windows on the first floor. Interior: the swimming pool (at the time said to be the second largest covered bath in Europe) now filled in, is surrounded by paired columns with moulded capitals supporting semi-circular brick arches.

Impressive hammer-beam roof. Other fittings, including doors, staircases etc. have survived intact. Apart from being an important early example of a Municipal swimming bath the building is exeptional because of its forceful architectural massing and use of stylistic features.

Listing NGR: SJ9335298687

Content

This is part of the Series: IOE01/1261 IOE Records taken by Brian Lomas; within the Collection: IOE01 Images Of England

Rights

© Mr Brian Lomas. Source: Historic England Archive

This photograph was taken for the Images of England project