Balsall Heath Library And Balsall Heath Public Baths

Balsall Heath Library and Balsall Heath Public Baths, Moseley Road, Moseley

The Free Library opened in 1895, designed by Jethro A. Cossins and Peacock. The Baths were added to the south and opened in 1907, designed by William Hale and Son with Job Cox as Superintendant Engineer and W. & J. Webb as the builders. Both buildings are constructed in red brick with terracotta dressings and slate roofs.

The Library consists of a large hall flanked to the north by a prominent entrance tower. The exterior combines Flemish and Renaissance details with Arts and Crafts motifs, all executed lavishly in buff terracotta contrasted with red brick walls. A deep terracotta plinth rises to the level of three great hall windows with mullioned and double transomed depressed arch lights, leaded with good decorative work to the heads. These windows are contained within a terracotta banded pier arcade with inner arch in moulded terracotta and spaced terracotta voussoirs carried into a brick outer arch. Above the windows, the parapeted wall head is raised in terracotta shaped gables with segmental pedimented aedicule niches. A Flemish Renaissance doorway at the foot of the tower features banded bulbous columns and a curvilinear terracotta gable-pediment swept above the entablature, surmounted by a relief plaque of the city arms. The tower above has curved chamfer corners with terracotta banding and rises to a crowning clock stage and dome with a pinnacled short swept spire entirely faced in terracotta with banding, pilasters, cornice and balustraded niches, capped by a miniature cupola. The design is rich and carefully balanced, with subtly varied scale highlighted in a small extension with side entrance to the right of the main entrance and in the tower detailing.

The library interior is an aisled hall of three bays with square granite columns bearing pulvinated frieze and egg-and-dart moulding, supporting round keyed arches with moulded voussoirs and panels to the intrados. Above runs a frieze with youthful figures reading. Brackets support the roof beams, and there is a central skylight.

The Baths exterior follows the same colour idiom as the library but with more lavish terracotta decoration to the symmetrical facade and more conventionally Flemish-Jacobean detail. A three-bay centre features an oriel below an aedicled gable, with ogee-headed lights to mullioned windows. Doorways are emphasised by octagonal flanking towers with oculi and terracotta cupolas. The central doorway has a swept-scrolled pediment surmounted by a large polychrome statuary presentation of the City Arms; the door lintel is carved "WOMEN'S BATHS". The doors at either side are inscribed "MEN'S BATHS/FIRST CLASS" (right) and "MEN'S BATHS/SECOND CLASS" (left). To the rear, on the north side, rises a tall cylindrical chimney stack with deep arcaded neck beneath the crown.

The Baths interior contains slipper baths to the road front with swimming pools behind. The Ladies' baths entrance is through the central door and lobby, giving access to fourteen cubicles, the majority retaining their original slipper baths, two lavatories, and a cubicle for the attendant with fireplace. A pay desk with segmentally bowed hardwood front and stained glass panels is present. The first and second class baths lie either side of the ladies' baths, approached by corridors leading to a top-lit lobby with two segment-fronted cash desks. There are ten first class baths and thirteen (originally eighteen) second class baths. Both sets of men's baths retain many original bathtubs and hardwood doors with original furniture to the cubicles. Ceilings feature decorated basket-arched steel beams supporting clerestories above. Throughout the slipper baths area there is abundant tesselated flooring with decorative borders, tiled walls, and stained glass quarries to the windows with original bell pulls and bell indicator boards surviving.

The swimming pools are aligned north-south (first class) and east-west (second class). The first class pool has tiled changing cubicles lining the sides, above which are balconies with bowed iron fronts. The north end has an arcade at balcony level. Decorated steel basket arches to the roof sit below the clerestory, and the pool retains its original glazed brick bottom and sides. The second class bath is plainer but has tiled walls, decorated arches, clerestory, and glazed bricks to the pool bottom. The boiler and pump rooms have round-arched windows and tiled walls.

The first floor is approached by an open well staircase with mahogany hand rail and wrought iron balustrade, the staircase hall having tiled walls, stained glass panels to the windows, and a panelled wood ceiling. The boardroom has a decorative truss to the ceiling and bay window. Adjacent is the boilerman's flat. The laundry room has lost its sinks but retains its drying racks; the header tank remains in the roof above.

These buildings form a commanding group in the street picture, epitomising the civic pride of their period through lavish, complete interiors and carefully composed exteriors.