The Cross Bath

The Cross Bath

Medicinal baths on Bath Street, a Grade I listed building constructed in 1783-4 by Thomas Baldwin, remodelled in 1789 by Palmer, and substantially altered internally around 1890 by Major Davis.

The building is constructed of fine limestone ashlar. Its plan is roughly square with a quadrant embayment to the south and a semicircular portico to the north. It is a single-storey structure in the form of a curtain wall enclosing an irregular space. The exterior wall, except where adjacent to St John's Hospital to the west, comprises fine ashlar arranged in a series of panels defined by unfluted Corinthian half-columns on a low plinth, partly absorbed by later paving, and carrying a full entablature with shallow blocking course and parapet.

The northern entrance portico features four unfluted columns to a dentil cornice and carries the inscription THE CROSS BATH over a pair of part-glazed doors in moulded architrave with fluted frieze and a central head with sunburst. To each side is a sunk panel with a large emblem panel. In the straight wall to each side is a twelve-pane sash window to a sunk panel. The right return is severely plain. The principal front facing along Bath Street has an undulating central section with an attic and tall raised central feature, once used as a flue, with a sunk panel carrying an urn in low relief. The attic has large urns at either end and typical Baldwin swags in a central oval and side rectangular panels, above a blocked doorway with cornice and enriched frieze, with flanking lights. Each bay flanking this centre is contained by half-columns and has a guilloche band above a sunk panel. The return to the south has sunk panels framed by half-columns, but the end bay has an opened arch with iron grille under three small panels.

The interior, apart from the entrance lobby, is unroofed. Steps lead down to the large central bath, with projecting kerbstones that formerly carried a protective railing. On the west side are some remnants of Baldwin's scheme, including a curved segment of wall with deep niche and urn. The east wall has a low relief carving of Bladud, after the painting by William Hoare. Only an elegant relief carving of a vase and one paterae remain from Baldwin's original internal scheme.

Historically, a bath occupied this site in medieval times, first described by Leland in 1540. It took its name from the cross that stood in the centre. A later version of this cross was erected in 1687 by Lord Melfort in honour of Mary of Modena, the Catholic wife of James II, and executed by Thomas Davis of London. It was altered after the 1745 uprising and finally dismantled.

Baldwin, as City Architect, rebuilt the bath in 1783-84. His design fitted within an almost triangular site constrained by narrow medieval lanes, with a narrow apex to the south and a remarkably Baroque north facade with a central bow and charming Adamish detail. Behind this was an oval pump room. The bath itself to the south was oblong, bowed to the east and west sides. When Bath Street cut through the irregular medieval city fabric, Baldwin's building became a misfit with a blank façade skewed to the splendid east-west axis.

In 1798, Palmer, who had replaced Baldwin as City Architect in 1792, took down his building except for the west wall and bath. Using the existing stone and precisely to the same plan, he reconstructed Baldwin's serpentine north façade to face east towards Bath Street. He rebuilt the north elevation to his own design with straight side parts canted back towards the middle where a segmental projection with a portico of four Corinthian columns forms the main accent. Inside, Palmer rebuilt the dressing rooms and pump room.

Unable to compete with the enlarged Hot Bath and Tepid Bath, George Phillips Manners in 1829-30 converted Baldwin's oval pump room to provide vestibule and dressing rooms with reclining baths and infilled the colonnaded portico to increase floor area. Manners and Gill carried out a still more drastic conversion in 1854, lengthening the bath by two feet, providing thirteen private dressing rooms and removing Manners' earlier conversion and the remainder of the original internal structure.

Charles Edward Davis oversaw drastic modifications to the building in 1885-8, considerably enlarging the bath to become a rectangular swimming pool and roofing it over. The roof was removed in 1952.