European Heritage Open Days 2014 | Belfast | Part II: Templemore Avenue Public Baths and Swimming Pools

< 3D Images | Part I | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI >

After leaving St Mark’s, I headed for Templemore Avenue Public Baths and Swimming Pools. This is another building that I pass close to on a regular basis, travelling to and from work, but had never ventured inside. Time to change that! Even in the late 1800s, many working class homes in east Belfast didn’t have what are today regarded as basic sanitary requirements, such as plumbed baths. To meet that need Templemore Avenue opened in 1893, and was one of four such public baths in Belfast, regularly serving thousands of local residents every week, including workers from the Harland & Wolff shipyards and the Sirocco Works etc. As domestic facilities improved, the need for such public baths waned and, by the early 1980s, the centre faced closure before being rescued by a voluntary committee. The portion of the centre currently open to the public includes a 25 yard pool, gymnasium, and sauna. However, quite a large portion of the building remains off-limits (except for events like EHOD) and in need of restoration and sensitive development. As always, I hope that readers enjoy my photographs, but even more that they’re inspired to get out for EHOD 2015 and see great sites like this for themselves!

Panoramic view of 25 yard pool waiting for restoration


Tile detail
That's a lot of urinals for a Ladies toilet ...
Slipper bath section of the centre
Patrons could even rent out towels ...
Slipper Bath cubicle, currently being used for storage 
You could have all the cold water you liked ... but the hot water was strictly controlled by the baths attendant who held the top portion of the tap!
Detail of truss roof and decorative paneling
Detail of window
Time for restoration!
Corridor of cubicles
Appropriately water-themed fountain in the centre's internal courtyard 
Journey to the furnaces and chimney stack
Exterior view

< 3D Images

Notes:
For anyone interested in the other EHOD properties I’ve seen and written about my find the following of interest:
Parliament Buildings, Stormont Estate, Belfast
European Heritage Open Days 2013 | An East Belfast Experience | Part I [Netherleigh House & The Strand Arts Centre]

European Heritage Open Days 2013 | An East Belfast Experience | Part I [Campbell College & Stormont Castle]
Location: Belfast, Belfast, Belfast BT5 4FW, UK

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The archaeology of the Great Famine: time for a beginning?

Image
[**  If you like this post, please make a donation to the IR&DD project using the button at the end.  If you think the post is useful, please re-share via Facebook, Google+, Twitter etc. **] Preface Let me tell you a story. Way back in 1997, not long after I first came to Belfast, I got a job working on the excavation of Portora Castle , Co. Fermanagh. The site was directed by Cormac McSparron , and during the course of the excavation we became good friends. Over a pint or two on a night out in Enniskillen, we discussed the potential for archaeology that the internet was opening up. One of our ideas was for an internet-based journal devoted exclusively to Irish archaeology. Our general feeling was that ‘someone’ should do it. By June of the following year no such site had materialized and we thought we’d give it a shot ourselves. This was the genesis of The Internet Journal of Archaeology in Ireland . Unfortunately, we had no resources and no track record of deli...
Read more

"Always remember to draw the swastika turning to the right": Some thoughts on swastika directionality in Early Medieval Irish Art

Image
Swastikas are, for a number of reasons, endlessly fascinating symbols. Like all symbols, they are only invested with the meanings we give them. Otherwise they are just little shapes and drawings that mean nothing in and of themselves. Owing to its long history and brief (if traumatic) association with Nazism, the swastika probably has a stronger resonance than most. You won’t spend long on the internet attempting to discuss the swastika before someone, trying to be helpful, notes that the Nazi version rotated counter-clockwise (elbows pointing left) and was bad, but the good Buddhist/Hindu version rotated clockwise. They may be trying to be helpful, but they are invariably wrong. It’s true that the version Adolf Hitler designed for the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei only went one direction: counter-clockwise. What’s wrong is that not all other ( i.e. non-Nazi) swastikas turn the opposite direction (elbows pointing right). Rather than dutifully plod through a debun...
Read more

William McCartney ‘Cocky’ Dunlop, BEM, MBE, 1920-2011: An appreciation

Image
With the passing of Billy Dunlop, on the 15th of September 2011, Irish archaeology lost one of it great promoters and enthusiasts. I cannot claim to have known Billy longest or best, but, like many field archaeologists working in Northern Ireland, I owe him a vast debt of gratitude for his kindness and generosity. For those stories shared over cups of tea on site or for the books lent to me from his personal collection I was, and remain, grateful. In time, I trust, appropriate obituaries and appreciations will appear from the pens of others better acquainted with more aspects of his life. My intention here is to set down a general outline of his life along with some of my memories of this energetic and charismatic man, who I am privileged to have known and been able to call both a mentor and a friend. Billy was born in 1920 in Court Street, Newtownards, and grew up on Deleware St, off the Ravenhill Road, Belfast. At the age of 14 he joined The Post Office as a telegraph mess...
Read more