Public Baths

CHESTER CITY (EM)

SJ4166 UNION STREET 1932-1/6/271 (North side) 10/01/72 Public Baths

GV II

Public swimming and slipper baths. 1898-1901. By John Douglas. For Chester City Council. Stone-dressed red brick and timber framing with plaster panels; cast-iron and steel internally; grey-green slate roofs. PLAN/EXTERIOR: partly 2 storeys, partly one storey: the front to Union Street has a symmetrical 2-storey entrance and administrative block with caretaker's flat with single-storey slipper-bath wing, left, and 2 swimming baths behind; boiler-house at rear, left of larger bath. 5 stone steps to pair of recessed entrances, each having replaced double doors; between the entrances a pair of ogee-headed leaded lights, stone-panel above with City arms and motto; a leaded light in each side-wall of each entry. The wing left of entrances has alternating single and paired lights, under 3 stone-coped gables. The first floor has a mullioned 4-light leaded casement to each side of a canted 5-light mullioned oriel, leaded, in a jettied timber-framed range above the entrances; a brick chimney, projecting on corbels, to each side has a plinthed stack with separated round flues, spiral and chevron moulded. The right side to Bath Street has 2-storey end-gable to the front wing, the upper storey timber-framed; a low linking bay, then the side of panelled brickwork to the smaller swimming bath, which has a full-length roof-lantern. The rear to Forest Street has the gable ends to both swimming baths similarly-roofed, with lanterns. The boiler house has a tapered octagonal chimney on a square stone-capped plinth; the facade to Union Street and the swimming baths behind are not unified in style or materials. INTERIOR: the swimming baths have iron or steel trusses. The larger bath has a gallery to sides and ends on arcade with cast-iron columns and fretted spandrels. (Hubbard E: The Work of John Douglas: London: 1991-: 196-7; 270).

Listing NGR: SJ4108966341