The Clifton Spa Pump Room

ST5672NE PRINCES LANE

901-1/13/10078 The Clifton Spa Pump Room

GV II

Spa/Pump room. Built 1894, designed by Philip Monro for Sir George Newnes, the promoter of the scheme. Bath stone ashlar with a flat bitumen roof. Classical style. Single storey with a three bay Doric pilastrade on either side of the entrance bay, the original entrance portico having been removed. The entrance has caryatids supporting large scroll brackets which carry a broken pediment; this is attached to a rusticated frame with arched keyed head, the key carries up into a scroll in the pediment with the initials GN (Sir George Newnes). Each bay has a 2-light Italianate arched window with a roundel in the arch over arched lights, decorated spandrels and scrolled keystones. All the windows and the door were boarded up at the time of inspection (September 1999). Doric entablature and projecting cornice with acroteric. Roof not visible from this level. The rear elevation at higher level shows only a panelled wall and a flat roof. The interior is richly decorated in the late Victorian theatrical manner of such as Frank Matcham. Single large room approached by a marble staircase from the hotel. Grey marble Corinthian columns (now mostly painted) on panelled wooden plinths, some damaged, stand forward from the walls forming 7 x 3 bays with the centre bay wider on both short and long walls. The south wall has three tall windows on either side of the entrance door. The east wall has two panels flanked by two pedimented doorcases. The north wall has three arched niches with female head keystones on either side of an apsed centrepiece for the spa, this has a semi-circular arch. The west wall has the old entrance to the Clifton Rocks Railway in the corner. Elaborate plaster cornices and decorations to the ceiling beams. Plaster ceiling roses and three vents for gasoliers. All the flooring had been removed at the time of inspection. Cinema projection room at north west end as well as the entrance to the Clifton Rocks Railway, and stair at south east end. History: The Spa, which was fed by a deep bore hole to the Hotwells 70m below, functioned until 1922, the room was then used as a cinema until 1928 and as a ballroom until the 1960's.

References: Historical material supplied by the Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society.

Listing NGR: ST5664372934