New Entry: Jacob's Wells Baths, Jacob's Wells Road, Bristol, BS8 1DX

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With the appearance of a palatial residence, the Hotwell Public Baths (better known as Jacobs Wells Baths) were completed in 1889 in the Northern Renaissance style.  Lively and decorative, built in local red Collybrook brick with terracotta panels and and pale stone dressings, the baths were designed by Josiah Thomas, the City Surveyor in 1881 to provide washing facilities for men and women and a swimming bath for men only.  They were built to serve the surrounding streets of working class houses occupied mainly by those employed on the docks.  Water was supplied from the near by springs which had always been used for laundry, a reason why laundry facilities were not also provided in the new baths. The building is grade II listed  (see LEN: 1292890), the entry describing the baths as "a very fine example of their type".  

In 1981, the baths were taken over by Bristol Community Dance Centre which fitted a hardwood sprung floor over the pool, sitting flush with the edge.  In 2016, the lease went back to the Council and the search began for a new user of the building. In 2017 Fusion Lifestyle, a leisure group with a track record in reusing historic pools,  was chosen by the Council to take on the building with plans to reopen the pool alongside community health and fitness facilities and flexible studio space.  This was despite interest from the local community group.

Unfortunately,  these proposals were impacted by COVID and never proceeded and the condition of the building has deteriorated with water ingress causing what we understand is irreparable damage to the hardwood dance floor and rendering the building dangerous to enter.

Now a new use is needed for the building.  The same community group which had been interested in using the building before is again campaigning vigorously to use the building as a community hub.  They have identified an acute need for a community space to be used in a number of ways, a use which would have the strong advantage of returning the building to the use of the community for which it was originally built.  They are working with other partners in Bristol, including the successful team behind the Trinity Centre, a community music venue run from a once redundant grade II* listed church.  An ambitious alternative vision has been drawn up which would be dependent on funding but there are other scaled proposals which would permit early use of the building while fundraising for the bigger vision took place. To support the call for the Council to effect a Community Asset Transfer to this group sign the petition here.