News / Hotwells
Jacob’s Wells Baths set to become a swimming pool again
Jacob’s Wells Baths is set to be transformed back to its former glory under ambitious plans set to be approved by the city council in December.
Plans include reinstating the swimming pool that was last used more than 40 years ago, alongside community amenities such as a cafe and dance studios.
The lease on the Grade II-building is set to pass to a charity which runs swimming pools, sports halls, indoor tennis centres and athletics stadiums across the UK.
is needed now More than ever
In the South West, Fusion Lifestyle operates Shepton Mallet Lido and Frome Sport & Fitness.
Shepton Mallet Lido – photo courtesy of www.facebook.com/sheptonlido
Spike Island had expressed an interest to transform the former Jacob’s Wells Baths into artists studios and a performance pace and rehearsal venue, but this option now looks unlikely to happen.
Built in the Victorian Queen Anne Revival style, the Hotwells Public Baths opened in 1889 in what was then a very deprived part of Bristol.
It contained six first class and 18 second class men’s warm baths, six women’s warm baths all of one class, waiting rooms, attendants’ rooms, an office and a storeroom, a towel washing room, boiler room and smithy, plus a 80ft long and 35ft wide swimming pool which the Western Daily Press said was “considered to be one of the finest in the kingdom”.
The facilities eventually closed in 1977 due to cost-cutting, with the council eyeing up a site on land next to the SS Great Britain for a swimming pool that was never built that would also have included a shelved beach, wave machine and indoor solarium, catering for up to 1,000 people.
Between 1980 and 2016, Jacob’s Wells Baths housed Bristol Community Dance Centre, who in 2015 revealed ambitious plans of their own vision for the future of the building.
A glimpse of what could have been the future for Bristol Dance Centre – which leased Jacob’s Wells Baths from the council for a peppercorn rent
Jacob’s Wells Baths has most recently staged community events organised by Jacob’s Wells Community Hub, and also welcomed temporary tenants Artspace Lifespace who have facilitated events such as the current production of Ice Road.
Fusion Lifestyle was the preferred bidder following the city council’s Community Asset Transfer process – the same process which will also see Eastville Library, Henbury Centre, and adventure playgrounds in St Paul’s and Southmead pass from council hands.
The final decision to grant the lease of Jacob’s Wells Baths to Fusion is likely to be made at a meeting of the mayor and his cabinet on December 5.
The original swimming pool seen underneath the sprung dance floor – read more when Bristol24/7 went behind the scenes earlier this year
Read more: Vision for the future of Jacob’s Wells Baths
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