Mounts Baths

Mounts Baths

Mounts Baths is a single-storey public swimming pool building with a dramatic stepped profile, built in 1935. The principal south elevation is faced in ashlared Bath stone, while the side walls are mostly glass set in a reinforced concrete frame and the end walls are red brick laid in English bond.

The building follows a clear functional layout. The south-facing entrance block contains offices and staff rooms flanking a central entrance, with a full-width corridor behind leading to the main pool hall. This corridor originally housed the central ticket office and buffet, with the reception desk being a later addition. The main pool hall measures 33.8 metres by 17.7 metres and contains a 30-metre by 12-metre pool. Flanking the hall on either side are single-storey ranges of shower rooms and dressing cubicles, originally segregated for men (west side) and women (east side). The wider east range also accommodates Turkish baths and associated rooms, including the boiler house and plunge bath. The north end of the east range originally contained a laundry, now converted to a dance studio. A single-storey red-brick extension was added in the 1970s as a teaching pool, now used for toddlers.

The south elevation comprises a single-storey office and corridor block under a flat asphalt roof, divided into five bays, each three windows wide. The second and fourth bays project forward, with their inner window bays projecting slightly further. Windows consist of large, multi-glazed steel casements. The recessed central entrance features three double-leaf glazed doors with timber glazing bars and steel handles finished in orange, flanked by steel casements. To the left of the entrance is a carved foundation stone inscribed: "THIS FOUNDATION STONE WAS LAID/ BY HIS WORSHIP THE MAYOR/ ALDERMAN J. BURROWS. J. P./ THE 12th DAY OF SEPT MCMXXXV/ J. C. PRESTWICH AND SONS. ARCHITECTS A. GLENN AND SONS. LTD. CONTRACTORS".

Behind the front block, the tall triple-stepped façade of the pool hall rises prominently. The central bay is pierced by three tall square-headed lancets with multiple steel glazing bars. The long stepped east and west sides of the pool hall are divided into eight bays by reinforced concrete framing, each step featuring aluminium clerestory glazing in three tiers of diminishing size. These correspond to the triple-stepped facade. The rear north elevation is also triple-stepped and lit by three tall square-headed lancets. Return walls on the outer steps are lit by six-paned (two by three) aluminium windows, replaced in 1998. The brick boiler house at the north end of the outer east range has a flat roof and tall tapering brick chimneystack.

Internally, the entrance corridor retains stone-coloured faience tiles and two large Art Deco raised panels depicting male and female swimmers positioned either side of the reception desk (added in 1998) to denote segregated areas. Doorways throughout are finished with wide frames of black vitrolite, and plaster ceilings are divided into square panels by shallow triple-stepped edging. The original ceiling in the entrance area is concealed behind a suspended ceiling.

The dramatic pool hall is dominated by eight parabolic reinforced concrete arches spaced at regular intervals. Outer piers of reinforced concrete rise from the sides of the arches to support the heavily-glazed stepped outer walls. The hall has a tall dado of stone-coloured faience, above which are Cullamix tiles (spray-coated in 1998 to improve acoustics). The sides and bottom of the pool are clad in blue faience tiles. The pool terraces are finished in alundum cubes. At the south end is a modern glazed screen with an upper seated balcony, whilst the north end has a smaller set of glass doors leading to a sauna added in the 1970s. Along the east and west sides of the hall are three doorways framed with vitrolite panels leading to facilities in the flanking ranges.

The outer east range contains boldly decorated Art Deco hot rooms, largely intact. The Turkish room is clad in ivory ceramic tiles with door surrounds and banding in black tiles. The rectangular plunge bath has raised sides edged in black tiles. To the east is a shower room and lavatories, and to the north is a series of three hot rooms, all decorated with the same ivory and black tiles. Steam inlets are covered by galvanised steel wall grilles.