Manningham Baths

Details

1/0/10152 CARLISLE ROAD 21-JUN-07 MANNINGHAM MANNINGHAM BATHS

II Swimming baths, opened in 1903, designed by Bradford City architect F E P Edwards, built in coursed dressed stone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs in diminishing courses. There is a ridge chimney stack behind the front gable. The windows to the front are all small paned, those to the sides having single paned tilting sashes. Original cast rain water goods are stamped 1903.

PLAN: the building consists of a central swimming pool behind a front entrance and reception area, surrounded on three sides by changing cubicles. Cubicles for baths survive to the left of the pool area, and have been replaced by a sauna to the right. The original boiler room is towards the rear on the right, with a later tower beyond holding tanks for the showers. A more recent boiler room is attached to the side, forward of the original boiler room, with a hexagonal chimney.

ELEVATIONS: the front elevation of the baths is symmetrical, with a central two-storey gable flanked by a single storey wing to each side. The centre of the gable breaks forward and contains a canted bay to the ground floor with stone mullions and small paned wooden framed sash windows, and a small balcony with a parapet above. There are three lights on the first floor above the balcony, and a circular window in the apex of the gable with drip mould and projecting keystone and elaborate stone swags to each side. The gable is semi-circular with a step to each side. There is an entrance to each side of the bay, inscribed MEN to the left and WOMEN to the right over the half-glazed double doors. The roof sweeps down to either side behind a raised parapet, and there is a single light to each side. The wings lower and are stepped back from the central gable. Each has two lights facing to the front. The rear of the front gable has a raised semi-circular gable matching that at the front, and a ridge chimney stack.

The main roof of the pool continues at a slightly lower height than the front gable, and has continuous skylights down each side. The left return onto Drummond Road has a gable at each end with raised coping: that at the front has three lights and that at the rear has two small paired lights. The central section has five bays each with three windows and a parapet. The right return is similar but with an extended pitch-roofed boiler house towards the rear end and a tall gabled wing at the back, housing the water tanks for the showers. A more recent extension lies forward of the boiler house, in stone, flat roofed and windowless, with a tall hexagonal chimney rising from it. The rear gable end has a circular window above and four windows below, the gable matching those to the sides. The water tank tower has two windows at ground floor level.

INTERIOR: The two entrance doors each open into a small half-tiled hall with terazzo floor on either side of a central reception room which has hatches to each side. To the rear of this room is a corridor, originally part of the room, with a blocked fireplace on its rear wall. Half-glazed doors to each side lead into the main pool which is tiled with white tiles to above door height and buff yellow above with string courses of maroon tile. Two open shower cubicles back onto the reception area, with a foundation plaque between them. There is a narrow terrazzo walkway round the entire pool, and changing cubicles surround it on three sides. These have tiled side walls and a cast iron coulmn to the front, with a low door and a rail above from which a curtain is draped. The pool, tiled in white with lanes marked in green, has steps at each end and three ceramic spitoons along each side. The roof is supported by slender steel trusses. A doorway at each side at the front leads to a corridor running alongside the pool. To the left this retains tiled cubicles with baths and showers, and toilets at the rear end. To the right these have replaced by a sauna area. To the rear at the right is the entrance to the original boiler room and tank tower.

The tank tower has a steel ladder leading up to the water tanks. The boiler room contains the original boiler and coal store below ground level, and also access to the below-pool area. The ceiling is supported on wooden king post trusses. Windows to the side are now blocked by the new boiler room (not inspected).

The right hand front wing houses the staff room, and stairs from the reception area lead to a small suite of offices on the upper floor.

HISTORY: The baths were designed by Bradford City Architect F E P Edwards and opened in 1903 on part of the site of a Corporation Depot. It is still in use as a swimming baths. The foundation plaque records that it was laid by the Chairman of the Baths & Team Labour Committee Councillor Herbert Morris Trotter on the 5th June 1903. The members of the committee are named, and the the architect metioned at the bottom. Edwards was responsible for a number of prominent buildings in Bradford, including the Town Hall, and went on to become Sheffield City Architect.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Manningham Baths were built in 1903 to the designs of F E P Edwards, a highly regarded City Architect who was responsible for the Grade I listed Bradford Town Hall. The building is a skilful composition, with well detailed exterior stonework achieving a clean, uncluttered exterior which compliments other public buildings in the immediate vicinity. The exterior has undergone minimal alteration, with the early addition of the water tank tower and the later extension of a new boiler house being the only changes, neither of which impinge to any great degree on the original fabric. The completeness of the interior is exceptional, including original changing cubicles, decor and reception area, and unusual detail such as ceramic spitoons along the sides of the pool. SE1498334256

Legacy

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