Templemore Swimming Baths, Templemore Avenue, Belfast, County Antrim, BT5 4FW

Templemore Swimming Baths, Templemore Avenue, Belfast

Templemore Swimming Baths is an almost symmetrical Victorian public baths complex in red brick, built in 1891 to designs by Belfast-based architect Robert Graeme-Watt (also rendered as Robert Graeme Watt). It sits on the east side of Templemore Avenue, east of Belfast city centre, on a corner site at the junction with Keatley Street. The complex comprises a two-storey entrance block, flanked by gabled male and female public baths, two swimming pools, a boiler house with tall red-brick chimney, a caretaker's house, a courtyard, and boundary walling and railings. Partially restored in 1996, the building retains its original use as a public swimming facility, making it the only still-functioning Victorian baths in Belfast. It is one of only two surviving Victorian baths complexes in the city, the other being the Ormeau Baths on Ormeau Avenue, which has been converted into an art gallery.

Historical Background

Belfast's population grew extraordinarily rapidly in the 19th century — from under 20,000 in 1800 to 97,000 in 1851 and 349,180 by 1901 — faster than anywhere else in Great Britain or Ireland. The area of Ballymacarrett, in the east of the city, became a busy industrial district, home to shipbuilding, rope making, machine works, distilling, and other large-scale industries. Before the Baths and Washhouses Act of 1846, provision of washing facilities had been a voluntary matter; the Act allowed local authorities to raise funds to build public washing facilities at a time when cholera and other infectious diseases made personal cleanliness a matter of public health.

The Templemore Avenue Baths — known locally as the Ballymacarrett Baths — were constructed in 1891 and opened in January 1893, forming part of a series of similar Corporation facilities at Peter's Hill to the west (1877), Ormeau Avenue to the south (1888), and Falls Road to the north (1896). The construction contract, dated 26 May 1891, records the work was undertaken for the Corporation of Belfast by Watt at an estimated cost of £8,300. The plumbing and gas fittings were installed by Riddell & Co., as noted in the Irish Builder (Vol. 33, 1 May 1891). The baths first appear on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1902, depicted as a rectangular structure at the corner of Templemore Avenue and Keatley Street, adjoining the site of a street hospital. Construction was contracted to be complete by August 1892, and the baths first appear in the Annual Revisions of that year, along with the caretaker's house, at a combined valuation of £300. Valuations rose progressively: to £370 by 1915, £460 by 1921, £620 at the first General Revaluation of 1935, and £2,100 by the time of the second revaluation in 1956. Under the 1957 Rent and Valuation Act the value was reduced to £1,680, then increased again to £2,000 in 1960.

The architectural historian Paul Larmour described the building as a "virtually intact survivor of the Victorian Age," noting that its red-brick Renaissance-style front was designed at an appropriate scale for the fashionable residences then being built along Templemore Avenue, surrounded by a grid of streets of parlour and kitchen houses. The central block originally had separate entrances for first and second class users — later adapted for ladies and men — leading to slipper baths in cubicles, and beyond those, two large halls housing the first and second class swimming pools with poolside dressing boxes. A small courtyard stood at the centre, and behind it, between the two pools, were the laundry and boiler room, with rear access for the coal carts that brought fuel to heat the water.

At 66 feet, the larger pool was not long enough for the growing competitive swimming scene. After more than twenty years of agitation, the Corporation extended the pool in 1929 to 75 feet and constructed a 150-seat gallery and additional facilities. Many local people learned to swim at Templemore throughout the post-war decades, but by the 1980s, use had declined dramatically as private bathrooms became standard and new leisure facilities were provided elsewhere by Belfast City Council. In 1983, a decision to close the baths was met with community opposition, leading to the formation of the Templemore Users Trust, which took responsibility for the listed building under a 25-year lease from the Council. In 1996, in conjunction with the Council, the Trust slightly altered and renovated the complex: the female swimming pool on the south side was converted into a fitness suite, sauna, and ancillary facilities, with one of the old slipper bath areas also adapted. The baths have since operated on a group booking system for swimming, serving a niche clientele of schools, clubs, and other groups at close to full capacity. The eastern extension to the baths was not included in the 1996 renovation and remains in a state of dilapidation, though it retains some original features.

The first superintendent was a Mr Hamilton Smyth, who resided in the two-storey red-brick caretaker's dwelling on Glenmore Street to the rear of the complex, as recorded in Belfast Street Directories of 1901 and 1918. Swimming clubs formed by large local firms — including Queen's Island, Sirocco, and Shorts — used the pools from an early date, and interest in competitive swimming grew further when the sport was included in the modern Olympic Games from 1896.

Exterior

The entrance block faces west and is rectangular on plan with a return to the rear. It has a hipped natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and finials, and a vented lantern with a spire rising from the centre of the ridgeline, surmounted by a weathervane. Walling throughout the complex is Flemish-bonded red brick on a chamfered brick plinth. A string course runs between the floors and at sill level, and an egg-and-dart frieze band runs across the entrance block, which also carries attached lettering reading "CORPORATION PUBLIC BATHS". The cast-iron rainwater goods are of ogee profile, supported on a brick corbel course.

The entrance block's west-facing front is five windows wide at first floor level, with windows grouped to the centre. At ground floor, three windows occupy the centre, flanked by two recessed open porches. The porches are reached via tiled and terrazzo masonry steps and are framed by round-headed arched openings in moulded brick surrounds. Windows to the entrance block are segmental-headed, 1-over-1 timber-framed sliding sash in chamfered surrounds with flat brick arches and projecting sandstone sills. Two linking bays, each two windows wide, connect the entrance block to the flanking gabled male and female baths on either side.

The north elevation of the entrance block is abutted at ground floor by the linking bay and is blank at first floor. The east (rear) elevation is abutted to the centre by a two-storey return; there are windows at first floor left and right. The return is flanked at ground floor by two flat-roof extensions: that to the left has a segmental-headed timber-mullioned window with transom light; that to the right has a half-panelled timber door with side-lights and transom light in a round-headed surround. The return has a window at first floor landing level to the left and at landing level to the right, a timber-sheeted door to the ground floor left, a window at first floor right on the north elevation, and a window at first floor left on the south elevation. The south elevation of the entrance block is abutted at ground floor by the linking bay and is blank at first floor.

The flanking male and female baths each have a round-headed timber Y-tracery window — with stained and leaded top light — in a rebated surround to the gable. Windows to the baths generally are timber Y-tracery with decorative stained and leaded glass panels to the top. The linking bay to the left (male baths) has an additional two diminutive square-headed windows to the gable and five segmental-headed blind openings to the north elevation. The right bath (female baths) is abutted to the south by a red-brick extension with a hipped roof, having a segmental-headed triple window to the west elevation and five segmental-headed openings to the south elevation. Both flanking baths are abutted to the east by the gabled swimming pools, which are higher in elevation. Each pool building has a raised parapet to the west gable with two oculi to the centre of the gable. The pitched natural slate roofs of the baths are lit by full-length ridge lanterns terminated by raised gables.

The north elevation of the left pool has seven round-headed blind openings with impost moulding, flanked by two smaller openings; the east gable has paired timber Y-tracery windows with horizontal glazing bars. A single-storey abutment at ground floor adjoins the two-storey caretaker's accommodation (not accessed during inspection). The right pool's south elevation mirrors the north elevation of the left pool. The right pool is abutted to the east gable by a three-storey extension, known locally as "the Ice Box" on account of the freezing temperatures experienced by users in the ground floor changing rooms and on the stepped seating gallery to one of the pools. This extension is a simply detailed structure in red clay brick; its gabled east elevation has a pair of semicircular blind openings at third floor level and five paired timber sliding sash windows on each of the two floors below, with three brick string courses at the upper level. The south elevation has an irregular arrangement of paired sliding sash windows. The north elevation has similar paired sliding sash windows, a set of external steps, and a large oil tank obscuring the ground floor.

The boiler house occupies the centre of the complex, connecting the two wings to the east and creating a central courtyard. It has a tall brick chimney to the centre of the ridgeline. The boiler house roof is partially covered with plastic sheeting. Its west elevation is flanked by two two-storey L-shaped blocks with lean-to roofs; a timber door to the centre is surmounted by three square windows. The east gable is abutted by a gabled extension with an oculus and a modern timber-sheeted door to the gable, flanked by recessed blind openings.

Caretaker's House

The two-storey caretaker's house is L-shaped on plan, in red brick, with single and paired painted timber sliding sash windows and decorative brick string courses between first and second floor and at second floor window sill level. It has a natural slate pitched roof and a central clay brick chimney stack.

Setting

The complex is corner-sited in a largely residential area surrounded by early 19th-century two-bay two-storey terraced red-brick houses. To the front, a red-brick wall with masonry coping is topped by metal railings with gates at the entrances. A red-brick boundary wall runs to the north, and there is a large cleared site to the south. The complex is enclosed to the east by a red-brick boundary wall with coping stones topped by metal railings. The rear yard is accessed via red-brick gate piers with pointed masonry caps supporting metal gates. The courtyard contains mature shrubs and a Victorian water feature comprising an octagonal metal-framed pool on a decorative shaft, with three painted metal cranes on a plinth; at the centre of the pool stands a stone cherub on a plinth.