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

Templemore Swimming Baths is an almost symmetrical Victorian public baths complex built in 1891 to designs by Robert Graeme-Watt. Located on the east side of Templemore Avenue, east of Belfast city centre, it is constructed of red brick and comprises a symmetrical two-storey entrance block flanked by gabled male and female public baths, two swimming pools, and a boiler room with tall red-brick chimney that connects the two wings to the east, creating a central courtyard.

The entrance block is rectangular on plan with a return to the rear. It has a hipped natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and finials, with a vented lantern and spire to the centre of the ridgeline surmounted by a weathervane. The pitched natural slate roof to the baths is lit by a full-length ridge lantern terminated by a raised gable. The boiler house is partially slated with plastic sheeting. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are mounted on a brick corbel course.

The walling throughout is Flemish-bonded red brick on a chamfered brick plinth. A string course runs between floors and at sill level, and an egg-and-dart frieze band decorates the entrance block, with attached lettering reading "CORPORATION PUBLIC BATHS".

The entrance block faces west and comprises a central two-storey block five windows wide to the first floor, grouped to the centre. The ground floor has three windows to the centre flanked by two recessed open porches accessed via tiled and terrazzo masonry steps. The porches are framed by round-headed arched openings in moulded brick surrounds. Windows to the entrance block are segmental-headed 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash in chamfered surrounds with flat brick arches and projecting sandstone sills. Flanking the entrance block are two linking bays, each two windows wide, connecting the gabled male and female baths.

The north elevation of the entrance block is abutted at ground floor by the linking bay and is blank to the first floor. The east (rear) elevation is abutted at the centre by the two-storey return, which has windows to the 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, whilst 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 at left and landing level to right, with a timber-sheeted door to the ground floor left. The north elevation has a window to the first floor right, and the south elevation has a window to the first floor left. The south elevation of the entrance block is abutted at ground floor by the linking bay and is blank to the 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. They are abutted at south and north elevations respectively by the linking bays, which are three windows wide. The left linking bay has an additional two diminutive square-headed windows to the gable and five segmental-headed blind openings to the north elevation. The right bath is abutted to the south by a red-brick extension with hipped roof, having a segmental-headed triple window to the west elevation and five segmental-headed openings to the south elevation. Both baths are abutted to the east by the gabled swimming pools, which are higher in profile.

The gabled swimming pools each have a raised parapet to the west gable with two oculi to the centre of the gable. The north elevation of the left bath 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 to the ground floor adjoins a two-storey caretaker's accommodation. The caretaker's house is L-shaped on plan, built of 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 central clay brick chimney stack.

The right pool is abutted to the east gable by a three-storey extension locally known as the "Ice Box" due to the freezing temperatures experienced by users in the ground-floor changing rooms and on the stepped seating gallery to one of the pools. This is a simply detailed structure in red clay brick with the gabled east elevation having a pair of semi-circular blind openings on the third floor and five paired timber sliding sash windows on each of the floors below. There are three brick string courses at the higher level. The south elevation has an irregular arrangement of paired sliding sash windows, with similar windows to the north elevation, a set of external steps, and a large oil tank obscuring the ground floor. The right pool's south elevation mirrors the north elevation of the left pool.

The boiler house to the centre of the complex has a tall brick chimney at the ridgeline. The west elevation is flanked by two two-storey L-shaped blocks with lean-to roof; 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 modern timber-sheeted door to the gable, flanked by recessed blind openings.

The baths are corner-sited in a largely residential area, surrounded by early nineteenth-century two-bay two-storey terraced red-brick houses. A red-brick wall with masonry coping to the front is topped by metal railings with gates to entrances. A red-brick boundary wall runs to the north, with 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 and 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, and a stone cherub on a plinth to the centre of the pool.