Hampstead Public Baths, Finchley Road, Hampstead
Land purchased and architectural competition held in 1886. Eight designs submitted and the competition won by Spalding and Auld. Work commenced on Monday 15 August 1887, Formal opening Formally opened Tuesday 5 June 1888
HAMPSTEAD PUBLIC BATHS COMPETITION - From the eight sets of drawings submitted in the recent limited competition, this design has been selected by the Commissioners, and the works are to be proceeded with at once. Messrs. Spalding and Auld are the architects. Three distinct sets of baths are provided, all well separated from each other, and conveniently and compactly arranged on the site. The plan of each block is complete in itself, and shows the swimming bath, the whole of the private baths, and the waiting-rooms, all grouped together on one level, with a separate entrance. The women's swimming bath is 60 feet by 25 feet, and each of the men's I100 feet by 35 feet. In all 58 private baths are provided, but it is not intended to build more than 45 at first. Galleries will be constructed over the women's and men's first-class swimming baths respectively, as these are to be floored over during the winter months, and the rooms used for public purposes. The commissioners' offices are on the first floor of the front block, and the superintendent's residence above. [Building News
NEW PUBLIC BATHS AT HAMPSTEAD - On Tuesday afternoon the Hampstead Public Baths, erected under the provisions of the Baths and Washhouses Acts, were opened in the Finchley New-road, Hampstead, in the presence of large number of residents of the borough of Hampstead. The building is of red brick with dressings of Mansfield stone externally, and the accommodation provided embraces two swimming baths for men, each 100 feet long by 35 feet wide, a swimming bath for ladies, 56 feet long by 25 feet wide, and a number of first and second-class private baths for both sexes. The first- class men's swimming-bath is provided with a capacious gallery, and it is intended to use this bath during the winter months as a hall for meetings, concerts, etc. The architects are Messrs. Spalding and Auld, whose designs were selected in competition by the Commissioners, and the builders are Messrs. John Allen & Sons, of Kilburn, the clerk of the works being Mr. G Buck. [Builder 9 June 1888 page 420]
NEW PUBLIC BATHS, HAMPSTEAD - This building, of which we gave some particulars in the Builder for June 9 of last year, has since then been open for one season, and is said to have proved most successful in its working, besides being (what many public baths are not) a building of picturesque exterior. In regard to the interior arrangements, it may here be added that each set of baths is en-suite, and is complete in itself. The waiting rooms being placed between the swimming baths with their respective private baths are very convenient for bathers using one or the other, or both, and favour economical administration, whilst good oversight is secured over the baths. The swimming-bath for ladies is found to be too small, and additional land has been secured whereon it is proposed to build a larger bath, when the present one will be used as a second-class bath. It has been rather too generally assumed in the planning of swimming-baths that less size is required for the women’s than for the men’s swimming baths. This is still the case, probably, in swimming-baths intended chiefly for what are called' the lower classes ; but among the more educated classes athletic exercises of all kinds that are suitable for women are receiving such increasing attention from ladies, that in any residential neighbourhood of the better class it may now be assumed that women are likely to require as much swimming-bath accommodation as men, and that the idea of a small kind of subsidiary swimming-bath for ladies is an exploded fallacy. The architects of the building, as mentioned in our former notice, are Messrs. Spalding & Auld. [Builder 6 April 1889 page 262]
Reference London Evening Standard 21 December 1886 page 5 – competition result
Reference Building News 21 January 1887 page 78 and illustration
Reference Hampstead and Highgate Express 20 August 1887 page 5 – construction commenced
Reference Builder 9 June 1888 page 420
Reference Builder 6 April 1889 page 262 and illustration
Illustration Illustrated London News 16 June 1888
