Smethwick Baths

Details

1868/0/10054 THIMBLEMILL ROAD 26-MAR-03 Smethwick Baths

II

Public baths. 1933, by the Smethwick Borough Engineer Roland Fletcher and the architect Chester Button. Reinforced concrete, partly in brick; flat concrete roofs. Moderne style. PLAN: foyer with first-floor restaurant flanked by stair halls and changing rooms; pool in block to rear. EXTERIOR: 2-storey elevation to Thimblemill Road, with margin panes to steel casement windows and a tall central block progressively stepped down by two flanking blocks to each side. Tall central block, with shallow pediment spanning three central bays which have tall windows set in reveals above square columns to inner porch; raised architraves to glazed inner doors with patterned glazing bars and stylised Gothic overlights. This central block is clasped by two flanking bays with stepped parapets and each with raised architrave to tall window with fielded central panel and stepped apron; raised panels in between each window. The two lower blocks to each side are in brick with concrete parapet, string course above tall window with flush concrete architrave broken at first-floor level by bracketed balcony. Outer blocks are more plain, each having fielded panel separating double-leaf door and first-floor window set in tall concrete architrave. Rear dominated by tiers of stepped-back clerestories, with uPVC windows, to pool; tapered brick stack. INTERIOR: Retains original glazed doors with brass fittings throughout. Foyer has pilasters and end columns to ceiling, divided into five panels with moulded cornicing; green terrazzo pilasters and floor, the green and gold banding to the capitals having black mosaic pendants; columns at each end frame entrances to pool and staircases, the latter with wreathed handrails to Art Deco steel balustrades. The former first-floor cafe, now the Smethwick Suite, has windows overlooking the pool, moulded cornicing and stepped Art Deco architraves to entrances each side. The pool is dominated by the structural reinforced concrete frame of tall parabolic arches which begin as square piers and are lit along the centre by a series of octagonal roof lights. To each side are steel balustrades in Art Deco style to the viewing galleries, the tiled walls beneath having large blue panels with cream borders and red-tile cornicing separated by red-tile pilasters with cream and green lozenges. Five stepped lights, set in raised architraves, to nearside end elevation, and at the far end of the pool is a blank proscenium arch, all rendered in Art Deco style. HISTORY: An exceptionally fine and complete example of inter-war Civic design in Moderne style. The structural form of the pool roof is clearly related to contemporary developments in structural concrete in France and Germany, the earliest use of such bold design in concrete being the Royal Horticultural Hall in London of 1927 (II*). Both the internal and external treatment of the pool is clearly based on the latter, which is ultimately derived from Scandinavian timber construction of the early 1920s, Max Berg's 1922 exhibition pavilion at Breslau and more particularly the reinforced concrete work of Hennebique and Freyssinet (notably the demolished Orly airship hangars) It was later used for other swimming pools such as Poplar Baths (1934) and Marshall Street Baths (1937) in London (both grade II), its use here being exceptionally early. Bold arches in structural concrete were also used at the end of the 1930s for other wide-span structures, notably Air Ministry storage hangars and bus garages.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

490132

Legacy System:

LBS

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