Ironmonger Row Baths

Ironmonger Row Baths

Public baths, wash-houses and swimming pools built in two phases by Finsbury Borough Council. The first phase, built in 1931, comprised a public baths and wash-house, designed by architects AWS Cross and KMB Cross. The building was extended in 1938 to provide a swimming pool, children's pool and Turkish baths, designed by KMB Cross.

The structure uses a steel frame clad in dark red brick laid in English bond with Portland stone dressings. The perimeter roof of the frontage block is covered in pantiles, while the rear pool has a slate roof.

The long rectangular frontage building rises two storeys with an attic. Originally it contained a central entrance hall with a stair to the left, wash-house facilities to the right, and cloak rooms and staff laundry to the left, though the plan has since been altered. Slipper baths occupy the first floor. A link block to the rear contains Turkish baths in the basement, changing rooms on the ground floor and a pool spectators gallery on the first floor. The link block and main swimming pool hall are aligned north-south with the frontage block, while a smaller children's pool projects at a right-angle to the north. Above the children's pool was a café gallery overlooking the main pool, now converted to a gym.

The 1931 frontage block is designed in the style of a Roman Renaissance palazzo. The east elevation is symmetrical with nine bays and a central entrance. The south elevation has three bays with an entrance in the western bay. A stepped stone plinth runs along the ground. The ground floor is treated as a blind arcade with rusticated brick piers and quoins, moulded stone arches and impost bands, and paterae within tympana. Windows have flat, gauged-brick arches and keystones. The main entrance features hollow-chamfered reveals and a tympanum with an inset rubbed-brick arch and stone batswing decoration. A raised stone panel displays the original lettering reading "FINSBURY BOROUGH COUNCIL PUBLIC BATHS AND WASH HOUSES". The doors are raised and fielded panelled with rectangular fanlights containing geometric glazing. The entrance on the south side is similar in character. Eight-over-eight pane timber sash windows light the ground floor. The first floor has small rectangular windows with moulded stone architraves and palmette keystones, along with steel casement windows with cross-pattern glazing. Dormers to the attic contain the same glazing as the first floor. The roof is hipped.

The 1938 link block and swimming pool hall present an austere Classical façade. The south elevation of the link is blind except for an entrance with bolection-moulded architrave, panelled doors and patterned fanlight. A similar entrance is located on the north side with hollow-chamfer reveals, panelled doors and a fanlight grille. The swimming pool hall features a pitched steel-truss roof with a long glazed lantern. The gable end is treated as a broken-base pediment with a central window set within a large recessed pilastered arch, framed by a stone architrave and bracketed cornice. Tall vertical windows to the west elevation have had their glazing replaced.

Inside the 1931 building, the plan has been altered from its original configuration. The main entrance opens into a small vestibule finished in travertine with a domed ceiling, leading through glazed doors to a barrel-vaulted entrance hall with moulded cornice. The hall ceiling features a rectangular internal lightwell with fluted reveals that rises to the top floor and is lit by a circular roof lantern; the well is enclosed by wrought-iron cages on the upper floors. The wall to the north of the entrance hall has been removed to create an open-plan foyer with the southern part of the former wash-house. The wash-house area contains no features of architectural interest. A well stair to the left of the entrance hall is lit by a circular roof lantern. The stair has travertine marble panelled dado with a brass handrail, a solid timber balustrade for the first flight and a metal balustrade above with a hardwood handrail. A timber panelled towel store is set between the stair flights on the first-floor landing. The first floor now contains offices. A few slipper bath cubicles survive with their original baths and seats.

The 1938 link block has entrance lobbies and stairs on its north and south sides, with stairs featuring metal balustrades and wooden handrails. The basement Turkish baths retain their marble slabs and timber cubicles in the adjacent cooling room, though most surfaces now have modern tiled finishes. The main pool hall has an elliptical plaster ceiling carried on square piers. Original tiered teak seating survives in the long viewing gallery on the east side. The front to the former café gallery at the north end, now a gym, has been glazed over. A glazed screen on the south side facing the main pool has been replaced in glass bricks. The floor, pool and wall finishes in the pool halls are modern. The gym above contains no features of architectural interest.

Alfred William Stephens Cross (1858-1932) worked in partnership with Henry Spalding from 1889 to 1899, establishing a reputation for designing public baths, libraries and educational buildings. He set up independently in 1899, continuing to specialise in public buildings, and was selected for the final competition for London County Hall. He later formed a partnership with his son, Kenneth Mervyn Baskerville Cross (1889-1968), designing numerous baths and other public buildings.

This is a handsome, well-detailed example of an inter-war public baths designed by the father and son architectural partnership AWS and KMB Cross, the leading specialists in the design of this building type in the early decades of the twentieth century. It is virtually unaltered externally and retains a significant proportion of its original plan and a number of original 1930s internal fittings and finishes, notably the Turkish baths, which represent a relatively rare survival for this period.