Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 21/11/2016 and on 08/12/2016

ST 5772,
901-1/41/125

BRISTOL,
JACOB'S WELLS ROAD (South West side),
Hotwells Public Baths

(Formerly Listed as: JACOB'S WELLS ROAD (West side) Jacob's Well Bathhouse)

04.03.77

II

Former public baths, gymnasium, now dance theatre. Designed 1881, opened 1889. By
Josiah Thomas. Red Cattybrook brick with buff terracotta
dressings, gable stacks and slate roof.
Central swimming pool with lateral blocks and front cross
passage. Northern Renaissance Revival style.
Single storey; 12 bay front, with 3-storey 5-bay pool gable
behind. The front is divided into 3 sections by brick
pilasters with terracotta domed octagonal caps, the sections
between articulated by octagonal terracotta pilasters with
smaller domed tops.
The central section has a terracotta panel with HOTWELLS
PUBLIC BATHS beneath a raised panel with the City arms, and a
pediment with foliate decoration. Central tripartite window,
flanking doorways inscribed WOMENS WARM BATHS to the left, and
MENS SWIMMING AND WARM BATHS to the right, and outer paired
windows, all have shouldered architraves and segmental
pediments; the central window has a raised panel between
consoles to a segmental pediment. 3 left-hand bays are blind,
the 4 to the right have paired windows. Each side block has an
end gable with a stack with terracotta panelled and gableted
top.
The large pool gable has outer brick pilasters to domed caps,
and a raised central section to a stepped pedimented gable. 2
lower strings, and a frieze and dentil cornice between the
pilasters; the middle section is divided by terracotta strips,
with 5 shell-head niches above the cornice, a cornice above
them, and a terracotta pediment with foliate decoration and
the date of opening, under a ball finial. The sides of the
pool have 6 deep semicircular arches under a corbel table.
Full length ridge lantern. To the rear right-hand side is a
decapitated square chimney with chamfered sides and terracotta
bands.
INTERIOR: a covered pool with a semicircular steel truss roof
carried on steel corbels, side blocks, and boiler house to the
left, with cast-iron columns with octagonal bases and moulded
capitals. The baths were converted into a dance centre c1980
and comprise a very fine example of their type.
HISTORICAL NOTE: the water for the pool came from Jacob's Well
on Brandon Hill.
(Gomme A, Jenner M and Little B: Bristol, An Architectural
History: Bristol: 1979-: 393).

Listing NGR: ST5781272690

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Hotwells Public Baths at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q26580866

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings