HEATH TOWN BATHS AND LIBRARY

HEATH TOWN BATHS AND LIBRARY

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Such "municipal modernism" constitutes the Heath Town building's immediate claim to local architectural fame. Its claim on national recognition lies elsewhere: it may have a significant place in the developing use of the elliptical concrete arch in swimming bath construction. This appeared about the end of the First War, and early instances are considered unexciting (Saint 1991, 8); for example Croydon baths, of 1926, despite the prominent concrete ribs, has conventional ceiling panels, and limited top and side lighting. A new impetus to concrete design was given by the striking Royal Horticultural Hall of 1927-8, with its stepped tiers and multiple clerestories; this aroused much interest, and one result was "a little rash of elliptically arched British municipal pools in the early 1930s" (Saint 1991, 10). Generally held to be the first was Poplar baths, commissioned from the Borough Engineer in 1929, but delayed by the national economic crisis, and not completed till 1934 (Saint 1991, 10) - that is some two years after Heath Town. The arch and clerestory design is strikingly reminiscent of the Royal Horticultural Hall, and more elaborate than Heath Town's.

The interior of the main bath, from the Book of the Century.

Nevertheless the bold, tiered arches of Heath Town, allowing one clerestory combined with prominent top lighting, and continuous side lighting mark a perceptible advance on the Croydon design, and certainly echo the Horticultural Hall.

These arches perhaps entitle H B Robinson and Wallace Wood to be regarded as national pioneers in this particular field of municipal building. That would be no more than Robinson deserved, for one constant thread in the story of the Heath Town baths project was his determination to keep abreast of all the latest developments. As he wrote in his key 1930 report to the Council which launched the work: "the Borough Surveyor, at your Committee's request, visited several recently constructed Public Baths in London and the provinces, so that there might be incorporated in the new buildings all suitable recent improvements in design" (Wolverhampton Borough Council 1930, 655).

It has been argued that Heath Town's two-in-one Public Baths and Library has a significant place in the social and political history of Wolverhampton, and in both local and national architectural history, between the World Wars. That place seems worthy of public recognition. Given subsequent changes to Heath Town and Borough service provision, and the reported structural problem in the main swimming bath, the question is: recognition of what kind?

Showing the clerestory combined with prominent top lighting, and continuous side lighting.


	Read about the Heath Town Swimming Club

Sources

Manuscript / Typescript : in Wolverhampton Archives
CMB/WOL/C/PB/25: Minutes of the Parks and Baths Committee, 1931-33
CMB/WOL/D/LIB/128.6: File on Branch Libraries 1926-47

Printed
Best G (1979): Mid-Victorian Britain 1851-1875,Fontana
Brew A (1999): Heath Town and Fallings Park, Tempus
Mason F (1982): Yesterday's Town: Wolverhampton, Barracuda
Saint A (1991): "Some Thoughts about the Architectural Use of Concrete", Architectural Association Files no. 22 (Kindly supplied by Elain Harwood)
Wolverhampton Borough Council (1926, 1929, 1930): Minutes and Reports of Wolverhampton Borough Council
Wolverhampton Borough Council (1948); The Book of the Century

Additional note:

The Book of the Century, page 135 – 136, contained the following account of the building and picture of part of the wash house:

"A branch establishment in Tudor Road, Heath Town was opened on Friday, 16^th December 1932, and the cost of the buildings, exclusive of boilers, purification plant and hot water work was £33,764. This establishment includes a Main Swimming Bath, 75 feet by 34 feet containing 85,000 gallons of water, and a special Children’s Swimming Bath 40 feet by 25 feet with water depths ranging from three feet three inches to three feet and contains 20,000 gallons of water.

On the South side of the building is a Public Wash-house, comprising fifteen washing stalls for hand washing, four rotary washing machines, three electrically operated hydro-extractors, and twenty one drying horses.

All water is softened to effect the greatest economy in the use of soap."


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