St Pancras Public Baths And Attached Railings And Walls

St Pancras Public Baths and attached railings and walls

Public baths, swimming baths and launderette, formerly with wash house and public hall. Built 1898–1900, designed by T.W. Aldwinckle. The interior was altered and modernised in 1960. The building is constructed in red brick with terracotta bands and dressings, with steeply pitched slate roofs. It forms a large rectangular block in free Tudor and François Premier style.

The main block fronts Prince of Wales Road and rises to three storeys with attics, with two-storey and single-storey buildings at the rear. The asymmetrical façade features recessed stair turrets at the angles, each terminating in a conical roof.

The right-hand bay contains triple-arcaded entrances, each with double part-glazed panelled doors and patterned fanlights. The arch heads have keystones and intermittent bands. A dentil terracotta frieze with scrolled acanthus enrichment runs at first-floor sill level and continues around the main block, inscribed with "Public Hall" in gold-coloured Art Nouveau lettering above the central entrance. Upper floors display architraved two-light transom and mullion small-paned windows; the first floor carries cornices, and the second floor has cornices extending into segmental hoods over niches between windows. These niches contain statues of St Pancras and St George. A Venetian-type attic window sits in a large gable, stepped at the base and terminating with a segmental pediment.

The central bay features a central round-arched terracotta entrance with three-quarter columns supporting an architraved head with keystone and intermittent bands. From impost level, pilasters flank a triangular pediment with a cartouche inscribed "Men's First Class". The spandrels contain reclining river gods, the left one depicting Tower Bridge in bas relief in the background. Cast-iron gates rise to impost height; the recessed doorways have been replaced with brick walls containing two windows each. The entrance is flanked by architraved three-light transom and mullion windows. The first-floor sill frieze bears "St. Pancras Public Baths" in Art Nouveau lettering. An architraved Venetian-type five-light transom and mullion window sits above the entrance, with two three-light transom and mullion windows at second-floor level.

The left-hand bay has a similar entrance with a cartouche inscribed "Men's Second Class" and reclining figures of Aqua and Eura in the spandrels. It has a matching first-floor window and a three-light Venetian-type window at second-floor level. The bay terminates in a small gable with segmental pediment. A narrow single-light window appears to the left on each floor. Behind the right-hand gable, the roof rises to a two-stage lantern terminating with an ogee lead canopy. Tall enriched brick chimney-stacks are prominent.

The right-hand return to Willes Road features two gabled bays similar to the Public Hall entrance. An eleven-bay buttressed baths façade with three entrances and blind arcading at first-floor level follows. A two-storey extension contains an entrance and five-light bay windows to the first and second floors with cast-iron colonnettes.

The left-hand return to Grafton Road displays a 1960 entrance. The central block has a massive crow-stepped gable terminating with a segmental pediment. A stone surround frames the central blind entrance with an enriched panel; brick bands appear at ground-floor level. A five-light Venetian-type window sits in a projecting bay above with dentil cornice and enriched panel dated 1900, flanked by blind arcading with triangular pediments. The left-hand block features two plainer terracotta entrances flanking a four-light oriel window. The right-hand entrance is inscribed "Ladies Baths".

The interior was not inspected.

Subsidiary features include attached cast-iron railings on low sleeper walls to areas. A foundation stone on the right-hand angle is dated 13 May 1900.