Public Baths And Gymnasium, Primrose Street, Alloa

Public Baths and Gymnasium, Primrose Street, Alloa

This predominantly two-storey building was designed by the architectural practice Burnet Son and Campbell (Sir John James Burnet and John Archibald Campbell) and constructed in 1895 and 1897. It occupies a corner site and represents a free Franco-Scots Renaissance style former public baths and gymnasium, with later twentieth century alterations and additions. The building is notable for its elaborately carved stonework detailing and important surviving interior spaces.

The external walls are constructed from stugged, squared and snecked red sandstone. A pink deep polished granite base course and architrave forms the principal feature of the west elevation. Some brick sections are employed, with harling applied to the rear and north elevations. The building is crowned by a moulded eaves course with some corbels featuring carved heads, and plain ashlar copes to the gables terminate in obelisk finials. Most openings are surrounded by moulded and keystoned ashlar. A tall octagonal red brick stack with a pair of cream bands sits at the northwest corner.

The west entrance elevation displays an off-centre advanced gabled entrance bay containing a tall moulded architraved opening leading to a recessed porch. The entrance comprises two-leaf timber and glazed doors with a fanlight and chamfered sidelights, set behind cast iron gates. Two carved sandstone roundels ornament the lintel, with a carved panel above inscribed 'PUBLIC BATHS AND GYMNASIUM'. A moulded string course runs below the first floor. The first floor features engaged Doric columns mounted on carved corbels, with a bipartite window set within a semi-circular carved pediment on a bracketed cornice. The window is flanked by figurative sculpture on carved corbels. The gable is surmounted by a small Dutch-gabled aedicule with columns and a plain shield. To the right of the entrance gable stands a single bay with a carved square panel at first floor level. To the left of the entrance gable extends a three-bay section with an advanced ground floor containing bipartite windows flanking a tripartite window, all with stone mullions. The bays are divided by engaged slender baluster columns arranged beneath an elaborately carved entablature featuring figurative putti sculpture to the centre. A balustraded parapet above incorporates blind niched pedestals, with engaged slender baluster columns dividing the bays at first floor level.

The south elevation fronting Primrose Place comprises a gable and lower two-bay square tower linked by a lower two-bay section, with a further lower two-storey range to the right fronting the main swimming pool and a truncated single storey terminating block. The gable displays the former coat of arms of Alloa set within a bracketed, columned and pedimented aedicule at the top of the first floor, flanked by a pair of angled round-arched niches containing narrow windows. These niches are flanked by engaged columns and topped by miniature paired and corbelled bartizans separated by a single baluster. The two-bay section to the right of the gable features a wide segmental Gibbsian arch at ground level, with paired windows above the arch set below a bracketed balustrade. The tower to the right has corbelled bartizans flanking a blind bracketed, columned and pedimented aedicule, with architraved and pedimented openings to the bartizans and overhanging eaves with exposed rafters. To the far right, an altered lower two-storey range fronts the main swimming pool, with a band course to the top of the ground floor and a later twentieth century first floor featuring a corniced parapet. A segmental Gibbsian arch to the right is surmounted by a castellated tower set behind the parapet.

The interior, as observed in 2011, retains largely intact pool, gymnasium and entrance hall spaces characterised by Moorish detailing. An L-plan entrance hall is finished with glazed and matt maroon and cream tiles arranged in a banded pattern, featuring a moulded cornice with decorative timber brackets. Some sections retain panelled timber with etched glass doors. A half-turn stone staircase with a cast iron balustrade and timber handrail displays distinctive finals to newel posts and some carved dragons.

The seventy-five-foot by thirty-two-foot swimming pool lies to the east of the plan, with a raked timber gallery extending to three sides at first floor level. A broad-span painted timber roof truss with arched bracing and triangular geometric top section surmounts the space, projecting carved dragon heads to the springers. A large flat-arched opening occupies the east wall flanked by smaller window openings, now blocked. Changing rooms flanking the pool have been remodelled.

The gymnasium occupies the first floor to the west of the plan, with a changing room at the south end and a raked timber gallery above. Corniced timber panelling and an arched braced painted timber roof truss with turned queen-posts and a projecting carved dragon head to the springers characterise the space. Corniced timber panelling and a large marble fireplace in a segmental arched recess feature in the former committee room at ground floor level.

Windows throughout are predominantly six-over-nine glazing pattern in timber sash and case windows with horns, though some later non-traditional windows have been introduced. The building is roofed in pitched grey slates with linear rooflights over the former gymnasium and pool areas. A flat roof covers the tower of the south elevation, and a later twentieth century tile-hung Mansard roof has been applied to the right of the south elevation low range. Straight ashlar skews and corniced wallhead stacks with engaged columnettes, wider to the upper stage, complete the external treatment.