Hoxton Public Baths, Pitfield Street, Shoreditch

NEW SHOREDITCH BATHS - We give the ground plan of the new baths for Shoreditch which have just been completed from the designs of Messrs. Spalding & Cross and H. T. Hare. The plan explains itself. The accommodation provided is as follows: First-class. — Twenty private baths, one public swimming-bath 100 ft. long and 40 ft. wide. There are sixty-nine dressing-boxes around this bath, and these are made to fold back against the wall, so that the space they occupy is then added to the area of the hall. Men's Second-class - Thirty-seven private baths, one public swimming-bath 75 ft. long and 35 ft. wide. There are fifty-six dressing-boxes around this bath, and a foot-bath is also provided. Ladies' First-class - Five private baths. Ladies' Second-class - Sixteen private baths. All the above departments, with their separate waiting-rooms attached, are placed on the ground floor level, and each department has a separate staircase from the entrance-hall. The public laundry is also on the ground-floor level, and contains fifty washing compartments and fifty steam-drying horses, and other necessary fittings for ironing and mangling. The public entrance to this department is from Bowling Green-walk, and it is practically completely separated from the baths portion of the establishment. Ample accommodation is provided in the basement for the storage of the movable floors and platforms, when these are not required during the bathing season. The buildings have frontages to three separate streets, viz., Pitfield-street, Coronet-street, and Bowling Green-walk, the first-named being the main front, which has been designed to group with the adjoining free library. The whole of the elevations are faced with best red facing bricks with buff terra-cotta dressings supplied by the Burmantofts Company, and the roofs are covered with red tiles. In the interior of the building glazed bricks and tiles have been very largely used, and the woodwork in the main corridors and large swimming bath is of teak. The whole of the floors and flat roofs are of fireproof construction, and the roofs over the swimming-baths, laundry, etc., are constructed with wrought-iron principals. [Builder 25 March 1899 page 304]

 Reference        Builder 25 March 1899 page 304