40 Friar Lane

This is a former Turkish Baths dating to 1872, built in the Venetian Gothic style to the designs of John Breedon Everard. The building is now in use as offices.

The building originally had a near-square footprint and occupied almost the full width of the block between Friar Lane and Millstone Lane, but half of the structure was demolished in the mid-20th century. It is constructed of red brick with ashlar dressings, topped by a slate roof.

The principal elevation faces northwest and is three storeys high with seven bays. The far right bay features a two-leaf panelled door with a round-headed fanlight and simple, acanthus-detailed brackets. A later doorway has been inserted into a former window in the fourth bay from the left. There are two plate glass sashes between the doors and three two-over-two sashes to the left of the newer opening. The window arrangement is repeated on the first and second floors. A decorative terracotta panel sits below the window in the third bay, and there is an ashlar string course running along the facade. Three later flat-roofed dormers are set into the brick parapet. The windows are within segmental-headed openings with ashlar keystones; the rainwater goods have been removed.

The interior front of the building contains offices on the ground floor, accessible through the later doorway. Beyond this, the main Venetian Gothic octagonal bathing hall remains. The hall is double-height, with a central open hall, side passages, and a mezzanine on the southern side. It contains eight marble and granite columns on moulded ashlar bases, supporting finely carved capitals decorated with acanthus leaves, flowers, and insects. These columns support eight pointed arches with white and black masonry detailing, and a further eight larger interlocking moulded ashlar arches with complex vaulted ribs decorated with dog-tooth and brick infill. Above is a large octagonal lantern with eight pointed windows containing stained glass. The roof is a polychromatic chevroned brick vault with masonry ribs supported on stub columns interspersed between the windows. Some of the vaulted passages leading off the main hall have brick arches supported on finely carved ornate capitals. A now blocked-up doorway at the rear formerly led to the heating rooms. The walls retain ceramic tiling. Below the hall is a large brick-lined cellar mirroring the layout of the hall above, with a main central space and side passages. The supporting columns have shaped detailing along their shafts. There are former doorways now blocked with breeze-block, relating to the demolished part of the building.