Public Baths

The Public Baths, built between 1898 and 1901 by John Douglas for Chester City Council, are a notable example of public swimming and slipper baths. The structure features stone-dressed red brick and timber framing with plaster panels, complemented by cast-iron and steel elements internally, and grey-green slate roofs.

The building is partly two storeys and partly one storey. The front facing Union Street has a symmetrical two-storey entrance and administrative block that includes a caretaker's flat, alongside a single-storey slipper-bath wing on the left and two swimming baths behind it. At the rear left of the larger bath is a boiler house. Access is via five stone steps leading to a pair of recessed entrances, each fitted with replaced double doors. Between the entrances is a pair of ogee-headed leaded lights and a stone panel above displaying the City arms and motto, with a leaded light on each side wall of the entries. The wing to the left of the entrances features alternating single and paired lights beneath three stone-coped gables.

On the first floor, there are mullioned four-light leaded casements on each side of a canted five-light mullioned oriel, which is leaded and situated in a jettied timber-framed section above the entrances. Each side has a brick chimney that projects on corbels, with a plinthed stack and separated round flues that are spiral and chevron moulded.

The right side of the building, facing Bath Street, has a two-storey end-gable on the front wing, with the upper storey being timber-framed. There is a low linking bay leading to the side of the smaller swimming bath, which features a full-length roof lantern. The rear, facing Forest Street, shows gable ends for both swimming baths, which are similarly roofed with lanterns. The boiler house is topped with a tapered octagonal chimney on a square stone-capped plinth. The facade facing Union Street and the swimming baths behind do not share a unified style or materials.

Inside, the swimming baths are supported by iron or steel trusses, with the larger bath featuring a gallery along the sides and ends, supported by an arcade with cast-iron columns and fretted spandrels.