Swimming Baths

Swimming Baths, 1904. Constructed of buff rough-faced and coursed stone with limestone ashlar dressings, featuring a lead and Roman tile roof. The building is in an Edwardian Baroque style. The facade is two storeys high and three bays wide. The outer projecting pavilions each have a finial to their lead cupola roof, with splayed upper arrises, a blocking course to the parapet and ashlar surrounds to two tiers of three-light mullioned windows. These windows have a shell-carved apron and foliate-carved frieze and tympanum, all set within a keyed, nowy-headed label mould. The outer bays are ramped up to the recessed central bays. Dolphins flank the attic storey, which is articulated by Doric columns and surmounted by a ball finial to a gablet. A plain entablature surmounts four Ionic columns that articulate tall keyed windows. The ground floor is rusticated with three segmental-arched windows. An entrance is positioned in a further bay to the left; a statue of St George sits atop a swan-necked pediment surmounting a tall, shaped gable with Ionic pilasters to a five-light Venetian window. A classical three-bay entrance is positioned in front of a taller nowy-headed pediment featuring shell carving, a cartouche and tympanum. The rear elevation is similar, without the entrance bay. The side elevations feature articulation similar to the projecting end bays, flanking four bays with a moulded cornice, finials to buttresses, and two blind segmental-arched windows to alternate bays. Inside, iron trusses and cast-iron columns support a gallery overlooking the main pool. This is a striking Edwardian Baroque composition located next to the bath house of 1826, originally built for Dr Edward Fox.