Cleveland Baths

The Cleveland Baths comprise a former caretaker's cottage with attached changing rooms, forming a miniature Georgian crescent, alongside a P-shaped pool dating from 1815, with alterations and extensions circa 1910. The baths were constructed by a local builder named Newton, potentially to a design by the local architect John Pinch.

The two-storey cottage is built of painted limestone ashlar, with a slate roof featuring moulded kneelers and gable-end stacks. It has a single-depth plan and a convex rear. The cottage’s central south-facing entrance is flanked by three sash windows with glazing bars above, and one sash window to the right. The north front features an arched opening providing access to the changing rooms and the main P-shaped pool. Three casement windows are present on the first floor, while the ground floor has sash windows with glazing bars on either side. The east and west gable ends incorporate false windows on the first floor. Attached on the north side are a series of cubicles with wood-panelled doors.

Internal features of the cottage include a panelled ceiling in the ground floor lobby, four-panelled doors and architraves to first-floor rooms, an early 19th-century hob grate in the eastern first-floor bedroom, and an early 19th-century fireplace and range in the western ground-floor room. Early 20th-century coat hooks and wooden seats remain within the changing rooms.

The Cleveland Baths are accessed via a gate on Hampton Row, leading to a steep path down to the site and the River Avon. They are situated within a walled garden with mature trees and are bounded by the river; formerly, the site was adorned with seats. A rectangular pool, approximately 8 metres east of the main pool, was created between 1852 and 1861, accompanied by a rockery and shelter dating from circa 1910-15.

Built in 1815 as public pleasure baths on land owned by the Duke of Cleveland, the Cleveland Baths are believed to be the oldest surviving public outdoor swimming pools in England. Their layout, resembling a miniature Georgian crescent, and their historical significance in the context of outdoor swimming make them unique within the Bath World Heritage Site and on a national scale. They demonstrate the continued importance of bathing in Bath, and represent one of only a few pre-Victorian recreational buildings to survive nationally.