Swimming Baths

Swimming Baths, Church Street, Westbury

Public baths opened in 1887, designed by architects Halliday and Anderson of Cardiff. The building was presented to the town by William Henry Laverton, a local woollen mill owner, on 11 May 1887, the day of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, and opened to the public on 24 May. Laverton conveyed the baths to a charitable trust with the stated aim of providing and maintaining a swimming pool for the benefit of the inhabitants of Westbury without distinction of political, religious or other opinions, with the object of improving the condition of life for the said inhabitants.

The building is orientated north-west to south-east. All elevations and the chimney stack are constructed of red brick with Bath stone dressings and detailing. The roof over the pool hall is covered in corrugated plastic sheeting (late 20th century), with the roofs of the ancillary ranges being clay tiled.

The accommodation comprises changing facilities, a reception area and plant room (added in the late 20th century) located to the south-west. A first-floor gallery overlooks the pool, with a small room used as a health suite. The second floor, formerly the caretaker's accommodation, is now used as staff rooms.

The main elevation fronts onto Church Street and is orientated north-east to south-west. It comprises three principal sections: a tall Flemish gable end to the pool hall; a central section of two storeys in which the original entrances were located; and a single-storey range with a central gable. The sections are separated by rusticated and fluted pilasters terminating in gablets.

The pool hall section features a mullioned two-light window at the centre, with single-light windows to either side on the first and second storeys. A stone string-course runs beneath the ground-floor windows above the plinth, and drip-moulding runs at the top of both sets of windows, continuing along the length of the elevation. An oculus with a keyed architrave is set in the gable-head. All windows have moulded stone surrounds. Various stone plaques feature royal heraldry and crests, and a profile of Queen Victoria. String courses in the gable apex bear the inscriptions "VICTORIA REGINA" and "PUBLIC BATHS 1887 AD".

The central section is of three bays separated by pilasters. To the ground-floor right-hand bay is the women's entrance and on the left the men's entrance (both no longer in use). They have moulded stone surrounds; the women's is topped with a triangular pediment, and the men's has a rounded pediment which protrudes to form a shallow canopy. The former decorative gablet above the entrances is now missing. The single-storey end section has four bays and a central pedimented gable with ball finials to either side, beneath which is a keyed oculus.

The south-west and north-east elevations continue the motifs of the principal elevation. The rear is dominated by red brick lean-to extensions added in the late 20th century.

Interior

The interior of the pool hall has plastered walls to the first stage, with red brick rising to the roof. The south-west wall features blind arcading with keyed arches. The windows, all at second-storey height, use the same motifs as the exterior, with apron moulding in Bath stone. A doorway with a triangular pediment is located at the north-west end. The roof is supported by cast-iron round-arched trusses featuring decorative patterning and the heraldry of the benefactor, WH Laverton. The tiled round-cornered pool covers most of the floor space and has a modern tiled poolside. The gallery balustrade and first-floor window sills have decorative metalwork containing a repeated "WP" motif (for "Westbury Pool", added later).

Architectural drawings of circa 1886–87 show the building as originally having one large rectangular pool with curved corners, partitioned seats to one side, and stripping boxes set into an arcade to the other. At the far end was a gallery and separate male and female entrances which led to segregated rows of slipper baths grouped along the south and east sides of the pool, indicating the baths offered sport, leisure and washing facilities. The engine room was shown as a single-storey wing to the far south corner of the building. During the winter months, as permitted by the 1878 Swimming Baths Act, the water was drained and the pool covered over by a removable wooden floor in order to use the hall for athletics and dancing.

The male and female changing rooms, reception area and toilets were re-ordered and refitted in the 1980s. The first-floor health suite and second-floor staff rooms are similarly refitted but retain their original layout.

In 1954 Westbury Baths was modernised, including re-arrangement of the sanitary accommodation, the removal of three out of seven remaining slipper baths, the removal of the stripping boxes along the poolside, and alterations to the caretaker's office. In 1984 the baths were extensively refurbished, receiving a new plant room, new roof (retaining the original cast-iron work), new lighting, changing rooms and disabled access.

The building forms an important group with the Grade II designated Angel Mill, the adjacent property formerly owned by Laverton.