Attercliffe Public Baths
Location/Address
824 Attercliffe Road and 2-6 Leeds Road, Attercliffe
Type
Description
Former Public Baths on Attercliffe Road. The building has a Lower Don Valley History Trail plaque that reads "Attercliffe baths built in 1879, provided both swimming and washing facilities for the area at a time when bathrooms at home were unknown. This was also Attercliffe's speakers corner, especially 1900-1939". The building has been converted to the Gateway Business Centre, which scheme was a candidate in the 2012 Sheffield Design Awards (see https://sheffieldcivictrust.wordpress.com/tag/sheffield-design-awards-2012/ ). The SPACES property website says "We have sensitively converted the historic Attercliffe Swimming Baths into great value office space, retaining & restoring many features including mosaic walled staircases, the glass roof and many more" (see http://www.spacessheffield.co.uk/properties/g1-gateway/ ). Interior not accessed but there is a surviving tiled staircase with elaborate cast bannister including City coat-of-arms (presumably later than 1897).
The baths were provided by Sheffield Corporation. Although Historic England include swimming pools in their listing selection guidance for sport and recreation buildings, provision of the baths here was as much to do with health and welfare provision for local residents as it was for recreation. Clifford Shaw's contribution on 'Aspects of Public Health' in the 1993 volume 'The History of the City of Sheffield 1943-1893: Society' notes "The growing number of public slipper baths were a great boon at a time when few homes had fixed baths. The earliest were at the Corporation Street and Attercliffe baths, which opened respectively in 1869 and 1879". Jean Cass quotes from the Sheffield Daily Telegraph for December 7th 1872 in her contribution to the same volume on "Water supply" that it was felt 'in Sheffield where Trades are laborious and dirty the refreshment and cleanly comforts of the bath would be well appreciated.'
The Sheffield Independent newspaper on 6th March 1879 reported "These baths, which have been so long talked of, and which have excited such warm discussions in the Council and in the Health Committee, are at length completed" and goes on to describe the new building: "The baths are erected... on a site... purchased from Mr. B. Huntsman. The building is of brick, but a successful attempt at architectural effect has been made at the corner... This portion of the building is of stone, and is the Italian style. A handsome doorway is supported by small windows and above is a very pretty Doric window. The whole has an appearance of substantiality, and though not by any means devoid of ornament, no idea of lavish expenditure is obtained" - lavish expenditure not, perhaps, being considered appropriate for this municipal building. The article states that the building was designed by "Mr. Stovin, who was in the Borough Surveyor's office"; the Geni website records "William Horace Stovin, born Sheffield in 1833. Occupation in 1871: Assistant Surveyor, Borough Office, Darnall, Sheffield". It is not known how many buildings he designed locally.
Statement of Significance
Asset type
Public BathsAge
The building opened in 1879 and is a building of merit, relating to both key infrastructure and municipal provision.Rarity
The building is rare for the local area, being the only public baths of this period built in Attercliffe and the second such public baths building in Sheffield. It is also a Surviving nineteenth-century building in an area of comprehensive clearance 1970-1990.Architectural and Artistic Interest
The building was designed by William Stovin of the Borough Surveyor's office, at a time when municipal buildings were usually designed in-house, by locally trained architects. Intact exterior with surviving internal features.Group Value
The building stands next to another civic building, the slightly later Attercliffe Public Library - these buildings are on a block that largely retains its 19th century character, except for a small modern building to the rear, on Beverley Street.Historic Interest
A building with considerable social and communal interest; the baths were a significant addition to municipal health & welfare provision on the industrial east side of Sheffield. Associated with local athletics (swimming clubs), education (school visits), sanitation (only available hot-water baths for local people). Street-corner site served as "speakers' corner" in early twentieth century.Archaeological Interest
Photographs of the baths in the 20th century form part of the collection of Sheffield Archives.Landmark Status
A building with strong communal or historical associations, indicated by the blue plaque and see, for example, Andy Moffat's 'Memories of an Attercliffe Kid': https://www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/articles/2008/12/01/attercliffe_andy_moffatt_feature.shtml, where he says "I remember it as the place I learnt to swim and got my first badge from school. We would all walk down the edge of the pool where the cubicles were lined all the way around, boys would go to the right and the girls left. Then it would be a mad dash to get changed without dropping your clothes on the wet floor... This place had that special smell of chlorine which stayed in your nostrils for hours after. It had an amazing tiled wall and staircase which was an art in itself... These places are still there but contain offices and small businesses; it’s nice to see a plaque on the outsides to mark its history. It always gives me a warm feeling and makes me reminisce when I visit back home." The street-corner site makes it a well-known gateway to a concentrated area of listed structures including Adelphi Cinema, Britannia Inn and Banners Department Store.Images and Documents
Date Listed
15 Aug 2022
Last Updated
15 Jun 2022
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