Making a splash!

Infirmary Street Baths, Edinburgh... then and now

Update Nov Infirmary Street Dovecot Studios named in Indy top 50 Museums list

http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/the-50-best-museums-amp-galleries-2112967.html?action=Gallery&ino=39

BLOG UPDATE 20th May Delighted to see that Infirmary Street Baths has won a RIBA Regional Award. Eight Awards made for Scotland, so excellent news, especially so as it was such a challenging re-use. Sad that Scottish Ballet HQ did not receive an Award however; such a great building, contextually challenging, but possibly not quite 'safe' enough for  a RIBA Award?  Trongate 103 also received an Award, full list here: 

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/riba-2010-regional-award-winners-announced/5000153.article

Also delighted that Infirmary Street came second in the Civic Trust 'My Place' Awards, with a High Commendation. Given the strong list of entries, this is very good news indeed.

BLOG UPDATE 8th April Infirmary Street article on the Guardian website  http://www.guardian.co.uk/edinburgh/2010/apr/07/infirmary-street-baths-edinburgh-history

BLOG UPDATE 1st April Pleased to see Infirmary Street Baths (Malcolm Fraser Architects, Edinburgh) has been nominated for a Scottish Civic Trust Award by Edinburgh's Cockburn Association http://www.myplaceawards.org.uk/2010-gallery-of-entrants/infirmary-street-baths.aspx

Quote: from the supporting statements:

 Buildings user's view: "...Dovecot as a building is a pleasure to work in - a fantastic re-imagining of a former community swimming pool. The building represents a fabulous contribution to art spaces in Scotland and the UK...”

The Cockburn Association is Edinburgh's Civic Trust:

http://www.cockburnassociation.org.uk/

The RIBA Awards shortlist for Scottish architecture was announced last week.

RIAS Announces Strong Scottish Shortlist for 2010 RIBA Awards

The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) has announced a Scottish shortlist of sixteen buildings for the 2010 RIBA Awards. David Dunbar, President of the RIAS, commented: "We received the largest ever submission to the UK's most prestigious awards and the result is a fantastic shortlist of sixteen very varied projects, including a masterplan, housing, major conservation work, hospital and education provision and even a distillery. All this comes at a time when life has never been more difficult or demanding for the architectural profession and the construction industry but all of it demonstrates that good architecture can have a huge positive impact on peoples' lives and Scotland's economy.

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/awards/riba_awards_2010_scotland.htm

That link gives the full list of 16 buildings, with further links to details and photographs (thumbnails, click to enlarge).

I'm pleased to see that certain of those which made the shortlist  feature the rescue and re-use of historic buildings. As a Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) Mills Section member, I'm delighted that the already multi-award-winning rescue of Stanley Mills, Perthshire (and once in danger of demolition) has made the shortlist:

http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/stanley/stanleymills/index.html

http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/propertyresults/propertyabout.htm?PropID=PL_273&PropName=Stanley%20Mills

In 1995, Stanley Mills was bought by Historic Scotland with financial assistance from the HLF and other funding bodies. The buildings are category A listed, and the design work for the entire complex was undertaken by LDN Architects.

Stanley Mills

Then there's Trongate 103, Glasgow, listed buildings in need of substantial repair, turned into part of an 'arts hub'. Housed over six stories in a former B listed Edwardian warehouse on Trongate, Trongate 103 occupies almost the whole street block between King Street, Parnie Street, New Wynd and Trongate. The building has been designed by Glasgow based architects, Elder and Canon:

http://www.trongate103.com/130/the_building/

http://www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk/trongate_103.htm


Scottish Ballet new HQ in Glasgow, about which I have blogged previously:

http://nemesisrepublic.blogspot.com/2010/01/on-being-industrious.html

which is in part the conversion of historic stables and in part exciting yet sympathetic new build, an addition to Tramway Arts, itself based in historic tramsheds, Malcolm Fraser Architects:

http://www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk/scottish_ballet.php

http://www.malcolmfraser.co.uk/projects/?contentid=268&parentid=248

and possibly the most challenging of re-use schemes,  B listed Infirmary Street Baths, Edinburgh, Malcolm Fraser Architects, converted to Dovecot tapestry weaving studios, exhibition space, office space and housing, in the centre of Edinburgh's World Heritage Site:

http://www.dovecotstudios.com/

http://www.malcolmfraser.co.uk/projects/?contentid=308&parentid=250

There are some buildings which are on At Risk Registers for which it can prove extraordinarily difficult to find a new use, and swimming pools are amongst them. Of course keeping them in use is first priority, but for many reasons this isn't always possible. Yet the example here at Infirmary Street, and another in Kendal in Cumbria (swimming baths and wash houses converted to a Wetherspoons pub) are among those conversions which show how re-use can be rewarding, financially and architecturally.

As long ago as 1982, SAVE Britain's Heritage was drawing attention to the architectural interest and variety of swimming baths in the UK, with an exhibition and (now, alas, out of print) publication:

Taking The Plunge: The Architecture of Bathing

The companion to SAVE's exhibition at the RIBA Heinz gallery 26th May- 10th July 1982. It draws attention to the variety and quality of swimming baths throughout Britain. Marcus Binney and Hana & Alastair Laing Published May 1982.

The Twentieth Century Society and the Victorian Society have also campaigned for the recognition of the architecture of swimming baths, and for those with a further interest there are useful links here:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/oliver.merrington/lidos/refs.htm#notes

As the Vic Soc says on its website:

http://www.victoriansociety.org.uk/news/council-urged-not-to-close-historic-staffordshire-pool/

Tunstall Pool on Greengates Street has been used by swimmers in Staffordshire for 120 years. It's a significant example of Victorian municipal architecture, but most importantly it is still open as a public pool.The building faces a bleak future if it closes to swimmers as historic pools are notoriously hard to find new uses for.There are only 14 out of more than 50 listed pools (in England) still open for swimming. Those that are still used need to be preserved...

Indeed, in order to bring attention to the plight of historic swimming pools, the Director of the Victorian Society, Ian Dungavell, decided on a marathon 'swim', and successfully completed his challenge to visit all of the listed Victorian and Edwardian pools still open for public swimming in England and swim a lap for every year each of the buildings has been standing:

http://www.victoriansociety.org.uk/news/category/swimming-pools/

In Edinburgh, the City Council took the excellent decision to refurbish and retain in use its legacy of beautiful historic swimming pools. Sadly, Infirmary Street had been the victim of a fire in the 1950s, since when the Ladies' Pool had stood roofless and overgrown; then it languished, unloved, on the Scottish Buildings at Risk Register* for a considerable number of years, while various plans for re-use were drawn up, use as a swimming pool not being considered possible. I gather that the fire had in part destabilised the building, and so an imaginative scheme which would enable the sensitive repair of what remained, and new build in order to help the cost of re-use, was devised. The baths, by City architect Robert Morham,** became the capital’s first public pool when opened on the site of the old Royal Infirmary in the 1880s. Infirmary Street Baths is one of several public swimming pools that the Victorians built in Edinburgh in order to combat cholera.

A couple of pictures here show the sad state the building, which closed in 1995, not without protests, was in prior to its re-use:

http://www.edinburgharchitecture.co.uk/infirmary_street_baths.htm

I'm a sucker for use of metal cladding (corrugated iron buildings being a particular pleasure) and the modern additions in zinc, clearly 'of our time' (very SPAB...) have given this building a new use which proves that even the most unlikely of  'basket cases' of disused swimming pool buildings can be given a future.

Pics with thanks to Malcolm Fraser, click to enlarge

Links to other information and recollections about Infirmary Street Baths:

http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/10/12_edinburgh_today_-_infirmary_street_baths.htm

http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/1_edin/1_edinburgh_history_-_recollections_infirmary_street_baths.htm

Times property article on the re-opening:

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/new_homes/article6804171.ece

Scotsman article:

http://living.scotsman.com/edinburghvisualartsfestival/Dovecot-Studios--Weaving-a.4365488.jp

You could say that Infirmary Street weaves together two distinct strands of Victorian idealism – the social vision of the baths... to provide sorely lacking basic washing facilities for a crowded Old Town, and the Arts and Crafts inspired vision of Dovecot, founded in 1912 by the fourth Marquess of Bute, a friend of William Morris....

...Amid the hard-hatted bustle and the snarl of machine tools of a building site fast approaching deadline, Weir takes me through the elegant spaces emerging out of the shell of the old baths, which closed their doors in 1995, although its women's pool had been roofless and overgrown since a fire in the 1950s. Basically, they have excavated under the smaller derelict women's pool and the larger general pool, to provide two spacious ground-floor galleries, while the first floor, on what would have been the main pool surface level, sweeps up into the lofty weaving hall, with its elegantly-arched Victorian roof timbers supported on cast-iron columns. Ideally fit for purpose, the weaving hall allows ample height for the biggest of Dovecot's looms, which was first assembled at the studio's old Corstorphine premises to create the largest tapestry woven in Britain during the 20th century, a commission for the British Library.

Generously proportioned skylights fill the work space with light, while the wide galleries have been cleared of their old bath cubicles and turned into a public viewing platform and further potential gallery space...


**Architect Robert Morham, City Architect and Superintendant of Works:

http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=200385

http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/building_full.php?id=212373


The excellent website of Dave Henniker, which has several photographs including a terrific black and white one of the baths before it was closed, detailing  the delightful roof structure:

http://www.henniker.org.uk/html/_bridges1.htm


Building Design article, Malcolm Fraser on conservation (with pictures)

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3125060


Unusual pic and lovely comments on Occasional Scotland blog:

http://occasionalscotland.blogspot.com/2009/04/skywatch-friday-little-and-large.html

and a great set of Flickr  photographs, showing the beautiful interior, from Doors Open Day, and reproduced with thanks to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en_GB

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chatiryworld/sets/72157607552156863/

*Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland:

http://www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/BAR/

C20th Soc:

http://www.c20society.org.uk/casework/reports/2001/bathing-belles-in-peril-lasting-lidos.html

SPAB (founded by William Morris in 1877)

http://www.spab.org.uk/

Great book on historic swimming baths:

http://www.playedinbritain.co.uk/books/great-lengths.php

Recent Times article by Marcus Binney on historic pools at risk:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article7051623.ece

Nem

PS SAVE Buildings at Risk Catalogue 2010 -Live or Let Die -  order now! I gather this year Scottish buildings will be featured for the first time:

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/buildings_at_risk/catalogue.php

Last year, All We Need is Love, Buildings at Risk 2009-2010 sold out within 6 weeks. To be certain of a copy this year, place a pre-order now. SAVE’s 2010-2011 catalogue will be available from June 1st 2010. It contains 100 new entries alongside focus topics and helpful information. To order your copy please download the order form and return to the office with a cheque made payable to SAVE Britain's Heritage or with your card details. The publication is priced at £15 (£13 for Friends) + £2.50 p&p (this will be more if you live abroad, contact the office for an estimate).

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/docs/articles/BaR2010orderform.pdf

See Lucy Denyer's article for last year's catalogue in the Home section of the Sunday Times 7 June 2009.

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/article6432246.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

And finally, thankyou, Things, for another link to this blog:

http://thingsmag.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/illuminating-the-corners/

Endangered species? The World Monuments Fund Watchlist 2010

Stone in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh (click to enlarge pics)

The World Monuments Fund Watchlist of the world's most endangered buildings and sites has been published.

An interesting mix!

The full list is here:

http://www.wmf.org/watch/project-map?list=1

UK photos (and the one in the Irish Republic, Russborough) here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/8293467.stm


The UK sites are:

CARLISLE MEMORIAL METHODIST CHURCH
Belfast, Northern Island, United Kingdom

http://www.wmf.org/project/carlisle-memorial-methodist-church


EDINBURGH HISTORIC GRAVEYARDS (Edinburgh World Heritage Site)
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

http://www.wmf.org/watch/project-map?list=1


SHEERNESS DOCKYARD
Sheerness, United Kingdom

http://www.wmf.org/project/sheerness-dockyard


ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST PARISH CHURCH, SHOBDON
Leominster, United Kingdom

http://www.wmf.org/project/st-john-evangelist-parish-church-shobdon


TECTON BUILDINGS AT DUDLEY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS
Dudley, United Kingdom

http://www.wmf.org/watch/project-map?list=1


The Tecton buildings at Dudley Zoo have been on the Twentieth Century Society's radar for a considerable time. Here's the 'Risky Buildings' entry, which gives a great deal of further information about them:

http://riskybuildings.c20society.org.uk/docs/22zoo/index.html

In 2004, the group of buildings featured as Building of the Month; here's the entry, with more information and photographs:

http://www.c20society.org.uk/docs/building/dudley.html

The nominations procedure for the Watchlist and reasons the buildings are selected can be read here:

http://www.wmf.org/content/nomination-guidelines

And what, you say, is the point of yet another list of things in danger? Does it help to highlight these?

Well, this one does at times bring help. As it says on the WMF website:

Launched in 1996 and issued every two years, the World Monuments Watch calls international attention to cultural heritage around the world that is threatened by neglect, vandalism, conflict, or disaster. The 2010 Watch continues this tradition of identifying endangered sites, while also encompassing sites with compelling issues or progressive approaches that could inform the field at large.

Watch listing provides an opportunity for sites and their nominators to raise public awareness, foster local participation, advance innovation and collaboration, and demonstrate effective solutions. The Watch nomination process also serves as a vehicle for requesting WMF assistance for select projects. Since the program’s inception, 544 sites have been included on the seven Watches. Nearly half the listed sites, representing 79 countries, have received WMF grants totaling $50 million. These WMF monies have leveraged an additional $150 million in assistance from other sources.

So a listing for these buildings and monuments and sites will hopefully focus minds and make these a priority re applications for other funding.

Indy

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/five-uk-sites-on-watch-list-of-endangered-monuments-1798550.html

Now that so much lottery cash has been diverted to the bluddy Olympics, every little helps

Ars longa, vita brevis? Greyfriars Kirkyard again. More on that here:

http://www.ewht.org.uk/EWH-grant-for-Greyfriars-Kirkyard.aspx

http://www.ewht.org.uk/Edinburghs-historic-graveyards-added-to-Watch-list.aspx

and Edinburgh graveyards in general:

http://www.ewht.org.uk/Finding-a-future-of-Edinburghs-historic-graveyards.aspx

World Monuments Fund:

http://www.wmf.org/

More pictures worldwide

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33197708/ns/news-picture_stories/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1

Nem

UPDATE Sunday 11th October 2009: a splendid piece by Kevin McKenna in the Observer

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/11/kevin-mckenna-scotlands-graveyards

...The Canongate kirkyard is a jewel in the firmament of Edinburgh's many enchanted spaces and I had cause to be grateful for its ability to restore a flagging spirit when I worked for the Scotsman newspaper, whose HQ was a two-minute walk away.

Is there anything better in the world for a troubled soul than to set himself down on a bench contemplating a row of quiet headstones with a packet of cigarettes and fortified by a few lunchtime Bacardis?

...Robert Burns acknowledged the sanctity of the grave and was heartbroken when he saw how poorly Robert Fergusson had been buried in Canongate Kirkyard. In 1787, three years after his friend's death, he paid for the lovely tombstone that marks the final resting place of the great poet and penned this tribute:

O why should truest Worth and Genius pine
Beneath the iron grasp of Want and Woe
While titled knaves and idiot-greatness shine
In all the splendour Fortune can bestow.

If I am granted the privilege of a decent burial, I'd be happy to leave with the words of the great Birmingham rock-poets Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler whose oeuvre inspired the music of Black Sabbath, echoing in the breeze. Perhaps they were inspired by Burns the great egalitarian when they wrote in 1980:

The world is full of Kings and Queens
Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams
It's Heaven and Hell.

PPUK readers...

Parkham Wood House courtesy Twentieth Century Society see report below.

Anyone reaching this via another website - my internet connection was severed last night (about 250,000 of us I think), when I managed to get back online in the early hours I was once again a non-person, locked out; that's despite the post by RobT saying we could all get things off our chests! Everyone except me, eh Rob? I gather in the case of one poster stating problems with getting his paid-for ad on site that wasn't what was meant!

I did receive a very kind PM from one person, but I have no idea if the internet connection problem meant my reply wasn't received. If there were others, I didn't get them.

As I am again locked from the site, I am unable to retrieve any PM's, indeed there are contact details and PM's containing useful information locked away from me for good it seems.

My crime? You tell me!

Not a site I would recommend. Caveat Emptor.

http://periodpropertyuk.blogspot.com/

A new listing

News today in Building Design magazine is of a new listing:

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3136473&origin=BDdaily

Well done the c20th Society!

http://www.c20society.org.uk/index.html


A 1960s cliff-top house in Devon inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier has been listed.

Parkham Wood House, by West Country architect Mervyn Seal, was awarded grade II status after being put forward for protection by the Twentieth Century Society.

The house sits on a cliff overlooking the town of Brixham, Devon. The building was praised by English Heritage and the DCMS for being a “very interesting example of English domestic architecture that faithfully follows particular aspects of international 1930s architectural idiom and theory, as expressed by Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier”.

More here from the c20th site:

http://www.c20society.org.uk/docs/casework/2007_parkham_wood.html

and more from here:

http://mervynseal.com/MervynSeal/Parkham%20Wood%20House.html


Nem

HERITAGE FORUM:

http://www.joylandbooks.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=11

Future perfect, past imperfect?

Credit: Architecture in Motion

Today's blog is a link to another site, as I think it interesting reading:

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3134789&newstype=A&sectioncode=452

So far, many new so-called 'eco-houses' have either been 'Grand Designs Specials' and outside the realms of what many can afford, or interesting but possibly considered too whacky a concept by Joe Public.

This looks worth following to see how it all pans out, and if mass housebuilders will take up the challenge.

Bolgar and May say the choice of design, building systems and materials are derived from principles of simplicity and learning. They also favour learning from the past, believing that there’s a logic to why elements are designed a certain way.

“This arrangement learns from several hundred years of simple urban house transformation and ownership,” says Bolgar. He adds that its generous width will make any future conversion easier.

“The house is designed to be simple, robust, and easy to patch and repair by non-specialists, which is important given that it’s increasingly difficult to predict what future economies and technologies will look like.”

Meanwhile, elsewhere there's a campaign and a petition to try to prevent any proposed demolition of what some may consider an architectural gem by Erno Goldfinger, others an eyesore in need of removal:

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3134876

A petition calling for the council to scrap any redevelopment plans and create a conservation area around the social housing has already attracted more than 300 signatures including those of Alan Powers, chair of the Twentieth Century Society, and James Dunnett, head of modern architecture heritage group Docomomo.

Dunnett said: “There are only two housing estates by Goldfinger — around Trellick and around Balfron [tower] — and we should recognise them for what they are and protect them.”

Council tenant Angie Fletcher, who was among the first tenants to move into the estate, said: “It takes a lifetime to build up a community like this. They’d have to carry me out in a box — there’s no way I’m going easily.

“These houses are structurally sound and could last another 1,000 years. We don’t need knocking down and replacing.”

And Aisha Mohammad, president of the residents’ association, said: “If there was a way we could buy this estate, we would buy it and run it ourselves. It’s the perfect example of a sustainable community.”

Petition:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savecheltenhamestate/

Note, however, that the Trellick Tower used to illustrate the BD article is not actually under threat!

http://www.c20society.org.uk/

Nem

PS Biff's bike ref (see comments)

http://www.biffvernon.freeserve.co.uk/Tithe%20Farm.htm

I think it a Pashley?