Survey Data
Reg No
50080687
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Iveagh Trust Public Baths
Original Use
Swimming pool
In Use As
Sports hall/centre/gymnasium
Date
1900 - 1910
Coordinates
315203, 233743
Date Recorded
31/12/2013
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Attached former public bath house, built 1905-6, comprising seven-bay two-storey pool house with dormer attic and stepped gablets to either end of front (south) elevation, flanked by two-bay single-storey with half-dormer attic entrance block to east, and three-bay two-storey gable-fronted boiler house to west. Remodelled internally 1996, now in use as gymnasium. Pitched slate roof to pool house with glazed lantern to ridge, shaped gables with cut sandstone coping and having blind bulls-eye windows to apices. Hipped slate roof with domed cupola to front span and flat roof to rear span of entrance block. Hipped slate roof to front span and flat roof to rear span of power house. Red brick laid in English bond, with recessed terracotta panels with dentillated cornices and red brick pilasters, over raised dressed granite plinth. Square-headed window openings to boilerhouse with red brick and terracotta surrounds, sills and timber casement windows. That over carriage arch having date plaque. Paired square-headed openings to pool house, with projecting hood mouldings, terracotta surrounds and sills and timber windows set within recessed panels. Circular and lunette openings to lower level, with chamfered granite surrounds and keystones, and fixed windows. Segmental-headed carriage arch to power house with terracotta surround, keystone and hood moulding and metal double-leaf gate with lattice grille. Square-headed door opening with terracotta surround and canopy, recent timber door. Segmental-headed porch to entrance block with terracotta and granite surround, terracotta hood moulding and keystone with decorative terracotta cartouche over. Recessed glazed timber double-leaf doors with overlight and sidelights, tiled platform and steps.
Appraisal
The Iveagh Baths is part of the Iveagh Trust Scheme, the most significant urban renewal scheme undertaken in Dublin in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The design is attributed to the London firm of Joseph & Smithem assisted by Kaye-Parry & Ross. Both trained engineers, Kaye-Parry and Ross may have played a more significant role in The Baths than in the other buildings. The baths were the centrepiece of the scheme combining elements of Arts and Crafts, Art Noveau and Edwardian classicism. The building has a tripartite plan, the centre block containing the pool house, the west end containing the boiler house and the east end containing the entrance block with a decorative domed cupola. The red brick exterior is ornamented with recessed terracotta panels and a decorative terracotta cartouche with well-executed lettering. The interior contained a galleried bath house with one hundred and ninety-eight private baths for men, nine for women and a large swimming pool which in recent years has been redeveloped as a public gymnasium.