Old Military Swimming Baths

ALDERSHOT

991/0/10032 QUEENS AVENUE 20-NOV-02 Old Military Swimming Baths

GV II

Military swimming baths. Dated 1900; by J.S. Smith FRIBA; minor later C20 accretions. English bond red brick. Welsh slate gable-ended roofs with deep eaves and hipped roof to entrance vestibule with large lead-clad dome over. PLAN: Main rectangular bath range with shorter range on south west side and large square entrance vestibule on north east side. Classical, and late Victorian Baroque vestibule interior. EXTERIOR: 1 storey. The main bath range has large battered brick buttresses, those at the north west end with tent-shaped stone weathering flanking a window high in the wall with a segmental arch and a moulded brick panel above containing the date 1900 with a coronet over all made of wrought-iron; at the south east end there is a semi-circular apse flanked by buttresses. On the south west side there is a smaller parallel range and on the north east side the large entrance vestibule has 3-light segmental-headed windows with casements complete with glazing bars, a hipped roof with a brick parapet and a large lead-clad dome with a finial and glazed drum; on the north west side of the entrance vestibule there is a large later C20 glazed timber porch. INTERIOR: Lined in glazed bricks. The large entrance vestibule has arcades with panelled piers supporting the dome with its glazed drum; stairs with cast-iron balustrade to gallery also with bowed cast-iron balustrdes and viewing gallery overlooking baths in main range. The pool is lined in glazed tiles and has a grab moulding around the edge and the elaborate iron roof has curved tie-beams, their soffit-plates wrought into pendants below the truss-posts and axial lattice-work arcades to the queen-posts. Historical note: Col J.S. Napier, Inspector of Gymnasia for the Army, raised nearly ?12000 for the building of these baths from the funds of the Royal Military Tournament. Beforehand, soldiers at Aldershot swam in the Basingstoke Canal and the Cove Reservoir. SOURCE: Cole, H., The Story of Alderhot; pp.88-89. An impressive example of military swimming baths at the British Army's principal garrison.