Arlington Baths Club

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The Arlington Baths, swimming pool, 2018 The Arlington Baths, Glasgow 16 - swimming pool.jpg
The Arlington Baths, swimming pool, 2018

Arlington Baths Club is a non-profit member-run swimming club in Glasgow. The Arlington Baths Club was the first swimming club in Glasgow and is located in a purpose-built Category A Listed Building that opened on 1 August 1871. [1]

Contents

The building is in the Charing Cross neighborhood and was part of the westward development of the city. It was designed largely in the traditional tenement idiom, albeit with some exceptions such as the famous Charing Cross Mansions. The area quickly attracted well-off middle-class residents who were the primary members of the Arlington Baths Club.

The membership typically showed up first thing in the morning before leaving for work and returned in the evening after work before leaving for home. These behaviors created the Club's customs.

A replica of the Arlington Baths was built soon after in London, however, the drawings of the Arlington were stolen sometime towards the end of the 19th century. This replica was bombed during the Second World War and was never rebuilt. The building of the Arlington Baths coincided with the implementation of the first of the Public Health Acts in 1870 and was considered by some to be the precursor to the growth of public bathing in the United Kingdom.[ citation needed ]

The Building

The Original Building

The building was originally designed by John Burnet, [2] the father of Sir John James Burnet. He designed the part of the building containing the swimming pool, the senior and junior baths, and the senior changing room and smoking room, [3] which now forms the northern part of the building.

As originally designed by Burnet, the building was single story and conceived as a kind of theme and variation on the idea of subdivision by twos and threes. Thus, the main façade onto Arlington Street was modulated by means of two pavilions, located at either end of the building with the centre marked by arched windows arranged in groups of threes.

One entered the building at the higher level through the arched entrance in the middle of the façade, coming straight out onto the transverse axis of the pool. From this point, the emphasis of the building swung through ninety degrees onto the main axis of the pool hall along which the other accommodation was laid out.

Burnet's intention was to create a composition organized symmetrically, that is by halves, but relieved by a sub-division by threes.

The original building is now protected as a category A listed building. [4]

The First Extension

Not long after the building was opened, a Turkish Suite plus ancillary accommodation was added in 1875 by Charles Drake, [5] [6] utilizing his pioneering poured concrete construction technique, allowing the membership to increase to six hundred. The Turkish Suite consists of a large square room, heated to high temperatures by a plenum with tiled walls and floor and a dome-shaped ceiling studded with small star-shaped windows glazed with colored glass. There is also a fountain in the centre, no longer functioning. No talking is allowed within the space. The remainder of the Turkish Suite consists of a hot room, cool room, shampooing room and washing room. [7] Originally, the washing room connected to the pool via a swim through. In front of the Turkish Suite, a reading room (now the members' lounge), shoe hall and entrance hall were added. [2]

The second extension

By 1893, more space was needed. Andrew Myles was employed as an architect to add billiard and card rooms. [2] This extension added another story accessed by a grand staircase, which in turn led to a junior billiard room (now reading room), senior billiard room, card room, and other administrative spaces, on the first floor [8] Myles extended the facade up to form a space with exposed roof trusses, added glazing at the apex and added a five windowed loggia above the entrance.

The Third Extension

In 1902, the club added a story to the street frontage of Burnet's original building. This did not extend the pool hall itself, but simply the bank of rooms which lay between the pool hall and the street.

The club hired Benjamin Conner as the architect. [2] He extended the front wall of the original building directly upwards to create a new larger billiard hall and dressing room [9] now used as a gym. Exposed timber roof trusses and partial roof glazing were used in these spaces.

Since the work carried out by Conner, no further large-scale additions have taken place to the fabric of the building. Numerous smaller-scale alterations have taken place. Internal alterations carried out during the late 1960s and 1970s in order to comply with fire safety legislation have damaged the interior of the building. [ citation needed ]

Naturist Swimming

Arlington Baths offers a naturist swim to those over eighteen on Sunday evenings, dubbed “The Sunday Swim”. The swim allows people who are not members of the baths to swim completely nude and make use of the baths’ Turkish suite, steam room, and saunas. Nude yoga classes are also offered. [10]

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References

  1. ↑ "About - Arlington". arlingtonbaths.co.uk. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "DSA Building/Design Report: Arlington Baths Club". Dictionary of Scottish Architects. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  3. ↑ "Gossip from Glasgow". Building News. 28 July 1971. p. 76. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  4. ↑ "Two historic baths clubs in Glasgow given A-list status". BBC News. 24 February 2014.
  5. ↑ "Concrete Houses". The Builder. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
  6. ↑ "Infrared sauna". Calmspas.com. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  7. ↑ Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow (1844). Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow. unknown library. Glasgow, Royal Philosophical Society.
  8. ↑ Myles, Andrew (25 May 1893). Proposed Billiard Rooms (Architectural Plans). GCA.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ↑ Connor, Benjamin (6 August 1902). Proposed Additional Accommodation at the Arlington Baths 1/9154 sheets 1-4 (Architectural Plans). GCA: Benjamin Connor.
  10. ↑ "The Sunday Swim". The Sunday Swim. Retrieved 12 June 2020.

55°52′15″N4°16′24″W / 55.8707016°N 4.2733034°W / 55.8707016; -4.2733034

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