Victoria Baths : Attraction of Manchester

Victoria Baths is a Grade II* listed building, situated on the edges of the Longsight, Ardwick and Rusholme areas of Manchester, UK.

It was designed by Henry Price and opened in 1906 by the Manchester Corporation. For 86 years the Baths provided both essential and leisure facilities. Private baths and a laundry were housed there along with three swimming pools and a Turkish bath. The main swimming pool was floored over in the winter months to hold dances. In 1952 the Victoria Baths installed the first public Aeratone (jacuzzi) in the country.

In the design and construction of the Baths, a great deal of money was expended, Manchester having at that time one of the world’s wealthiest municipal coffers. The façade has multi-coloured brickwork and terracotta decoration, the main interior public spaces are clad in glazed tiles from floor to ceiling and most of the many windows have decorative stained glass.

The Baths were closed by Manchester City Council in 1993. The Friends of Victoria Baths was formed and began to investigate the possibility of running the Victoria Baths independently.

Various fund-raising attempts failed to bring about a restoration of the Baths, although work to prevent the further dereliction of the building started in 1998.

In 2003, the Baths were the winner of the first series of BBC 2’s Restoration programme, chosen by a public phone-vote from a short-list of ten buildings in danger of dereliction in the UK. It was awarded £3.5 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the money raised through the phone-voting process.

However, bureaucratic and technical hurdles meant that the money raised could not be spent immediately, and final planning approval to begin a restoration process was not received until September 2005. It is expected that physical work will begin in September 2006.