Penallta Colliery Baths Building

Penallta Colliery Baths Building

This is a pithead baths block constructed from brown brick with white concrete dressings and multi-pane metal-framed windows, topped with a flat felted roof fitted with long glazed rooflights. The building follows an irregular, stepped plan with several wings arranged around a central light-well. Built into the hillside, it rises to two storeys at the front and three storeys at the rear.

The front elevation, facing Penalltau Road, features a continuous row of windows with concrete mullions beneath a tall blank wall topped by a deep concrete eaves cornice. At the south end stands a tall water tower, emphasised by vertical windows on two sides serving the staircase within its lower part. A single-storey wing to the front and south side contained the Medical Centre, accessed by a sloping formerly covered walkway from the north. The main doorway opens onto the base of the staircase and water tower, framed by vertical banding of brick headers on either side, multiple string courses, small windows, a concrete canopy over the doors, and a fanlight with glazing in small squares and horizontal rectangles. Another single-storey wing to the south houses the canteen, its principal feature being a continuously-glazed semi-circular front that originally made it an exceptionally light room. Further well-lit canteen and kitchen areas extend to the south and east.

The rear and sides display continuous bands of metal-framed windows lighting the shower and locker areas, with white concrete bands and mullions separating multi-pane metal windows. Circular ventilator openings are picked out with white concrete surrounds, with some metal ventilators at the base. Doorways from the north access the boilerhouse level, while an entrance from the east leads to the baths area from the pithead, both covered by concrete canopies over horizontal-panelled doors. A rear staircase with vertical metal windows rises over three storeys.

A low boundary wall to Penalltau Road is built of matching brown brick with concrete cappings, and some of the original metal railings remain in place.

Inside, the entrance from Penalltau Road and the base of the staircase feature green glazed tiles with a black dado band, leading into the baths on one side and the canteen on the other. The concrete cantilevered stair is well lit by large windows. The canteen has a panelled dado with curved skirting moulding for easy cleaning, supplemented by roof lights and the large glazed bay front. The shower arrangements are identical on both floors, with lockers filling the east and south wings and showers occupying two square areas between them. The lockers and showers on the east side were designated for dirty clothes, with a separate staircase from the pit-head side providing access, while those on the south side were for clean clothes. Original plenum lockers with hot air piped through them remain in place on the ground floor but have been partially removed above. The original showers are still in position, featuring semi-circular pipes to shower heads and white-tiled individual shower stalls colour-coded with single-coloured tiles on each stall to indicate cleaning rotas. The top floor showers are well lit with ample rooflights. A central light-well with white glazed tiling provides ample light to all shower areas. A basement level on the north side provides access to the plenum hot air and water tanks and the boilers, which are located in a prefabricated extension to the west.