Camberwell Public Baths, London SE5 7BS

Camberwell Public Baths

Henry Spalding and Alfred Cross

1890-91, officially opened Oct. 1892

Artichoke Place / Kimpton Road, London SE5 7BS

This handsome red brick Grade II listed building has terracotta ornamentation, artificial stone dressings and a Dutch gable with a clock-face and a shell motif in the pediment. The listing text describes it as being in "Netherlandish Renaissance style," and as one of the first baths designed by Cross, who became "a leading expert" on such buildings and wrote the standard book about them, Public Baths and Wash-houses (1906). [Commentary continues below.]

Photograph and text by by Jacqueline Banerjee.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

Spalding specialised in this kind of building too, and the Camberwell Baths were also among the first involving Spalding partnerships. The fact that some architects made public baths their speciality shows how important these facilities had become. Their fashionable styles, materials (such as the terracotta on the upper-storey pilasters here) and decorations (like the crowning shell motif, and the bold gilded lettering) show how much pride the Victorians took in their sanitary reform (see Skoski 182). Some of them looked as grand as the town halls themselves. Indeed, the St Pancras Public Baths was combined with a public hall.

However, Anthony S. Wohl writes, "Though the subject of much self-congratulation, the great municipal baths also came in for much criticism. They were rightly criticised for being much too ornate and lavish in construction" (75). The exterior of the Camberwell Baths is comparatively restrained, so perhaps Spalding and Cross had taken note of the criticism. But it still cuts a dash in this confined space, and the listing text suggests that the interior is wonderful:

Behind entrance lobby is 1st-class bath, of 14 bays with viewing gallery to all sides and lit by skylight; roof truss formed from a pair of hammer beams from which spring an arched brace, each bay tied by a wrought-iron brace. Side aisles formed by orthostats supporting concrete beams. One segmental-arched window for each bay. The gallery front of iron, curved in section with open filigree work.

There have been great changes, of course, because the building has now been redeveloped into a modern leisure centre. But Southwark Council, in whose administrative area the Baths fall, believes that "Messrs Spalding and Cross ... would be very proud of the renovation work throughout and in front of the building."

Related Material

A Prosaic but Useful Service: Bathhouses and Washhouses, an Idea Whose Time Had Come

Sources

"Camberwell Baths." The Victorian Society. Web. 23 April 2013.

"Camberwell Leisure Centre.". Southwark Council. Web. 23 April 2013.

"Camberwell Public Baths, Soiuthwark." British Listed Buildings. Web. 23 April 2013.

Skoski, Joseph R. Public Baths and Washhouses in Victorian Britain, 1842-1914. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000. Print.

Wohl, Anthony S. Endangered Lives: Public Health in Victorian Britain.. London: Dent, 1983. Print.

Last modified 23 April 2013