Hot Baths, Buxton

In 1852 William Cavendish, the 6th Duke of Devonshire, had his architect Henry Currey redesign and rebuild the hot baths. The hot baths were largely enveloped in an iron and glass structure with a colonnade running along the front, extending the sheltered promenade that ran along the frontage of the Crescent and the side of the natural baths. The design has affinities with The Crystal Palace in London and The Great Conservatory at Chatsworth. Reopening to the public in 1854, it was also used extensively for the recovery of patients from The Devonshire Hospital, also known as "The Dome.”  In the late 19th and early 20th century several alterations were made to improve the baths, the main south east facade was rebuilt in stone in a neo classical style, the treatment rooms and baths were extended and the water heating equipment was modernised, the separate sex entrances were replaced by a central reception where a ticket was purchased or a prescription was presented, the separate corridors remained and this was where they were taken to the treatment rooms aligned down both sides. In 1985 after being empty for almost 20 years, a major remodelling and development took place to turn the historic building into a retail and leisure arcade,

BUXTON BATHS, DERBYSHIRE, The warm mineral springs of Buxton have been celebrated for their medicinal virtues from time immemorial. The water is poured forth in vast and unvarying quantity, estimated to be no less than 200 gallons per minute. More than 120 gallons per minute are supplied to the range of baths, which are made use of at the naturally elevated temperature of 82 degrees, Fahrenheit. A large supply is required for an equally extensive range of baths in which the medicinal water is made use of at a higher degree of temperature; a considerable supply of the water is required for the well, at which the water is taken internally, and a large but not estimated quantity of the water is allowed to run to waste. The supply of this great medicinal agent is so large, that the water is constantly running through the baths and well; the temperature, purity, and medicinal properties being thereby maintained. Charged with about 206 cubic inches per gallon of nitrogen gas, in addition to the same constituents which serve to distinguish mineral from atmospheric waters, the Buxton tepid water is clear, bright, and buoyant, primarily exciting, and stimulating in its effects upon the system, and eventually exercising a marked alterative action on those persons who bathe in it, or drink it steadily for any length of time. In cases of rheumatism, its effects are known to be curative. For gout, neuralgia, spinal weakness, and the like, its use is found to be attended with very beneficial results. In cases of injury of chronic character, ‘ as in the instance of old sprains which time and skill, and the efforts of nature have failed to restore, attended with pain and a crippled and imperfect use of the injured parts, the oaths of this mineral water have proved in most cases to be infinitely valuable.* Surrounded on all sides by the great manufacturing districts of Lancashire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, and Yorkshire, readily accessible to the large number of persons who work in those great hives of British industry, and who may DC peculiarly subject to suffer from those diseases in the relief of which the Buxton waters prove to be so efficacious, and placed at an elevation of 1,000 feet above the level of the sea, on the borders of a great formation of mountain limestone, and close to an extensive gritstone formation, with a dry and bracing mountain climate, the baths have, at intervals of time, had to be more and more extended and improved, in order to meet the growing wants and requirements of the public. The baths, which were constructed of sheets of lead and beams of oak, in some extremely remote time, and which, if enclosed by walls from public observation, would seem to have been situated in roofless structures, were early removed to make way for constructions of brick and concrete ; and these, in their turn, about the time of Queen Elizabeth, were replaced by vaulted apartments of stone, enclosing baths lined with masonry, and floored by the natural rocks of black marble, through the interstices of which the mineral water emerges to the surface ; and, finally, notwithstanding many and considerable subsequent additions, these have proved to be too few in number, and otherwise unequal to the wants and expectations of the large numbers of invalids who resort to Buxton ; and the noble proprietor of the baths and of the principal adjacent property, his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, has, in accordance with the example of his forefathers, the owners of the properly for many generations, erected, under the judicious direction of Mr Henry Currey, architect, the new baths and buildings to which the attention of our readers is now directed. Apartments had to be kept dry, and to be ventilated duly, through which such very large quantities of water are being poured continually; an independent and constant supply of water bad to be afforded to every one of the baths; and a limited amount of space had to be turned to the utmost possible account; and all these objects have been attained in a very satisfactory manner.

We proceed to give a technical account of the structures: — The baths consist of two distinct buildings, one on the north and the other on the south side of the Buxton-crescent, which was erected under the direction of the late Mr. Carr, of York, between 1779 and 1784, both being approached under cover (a point of much importance for invalids) from the arcade surrounding the crescent. One is called the “natural wing,” from the water being used there at its natural temperature; the other the “hot wing,” where the temperature is artificially raised to any required extent. The tepid springs issue from the limestone rocks immediately under the site of the natural "wing, and some of the baths are supplied through perforations in the marble bottoms, which are laid hollow over the rock. The baths are built at such a level that the height to which the springs rise forms the required depth. A reservoir is formed at the principal source, and the water flows continuously from thence to the whole range of baths. The water is also led from the same service to a large reservoir under the hot wing to supply that Building, but here the water has to be pumped up into tanks to supply the different baths. It was deemed of great importance to have the natural wing built immediately over the springs, so that the gases in the water might escape as little as possible, The ground is of an irregular shape, and part of the baths are formed in the lower story of the " Old Hall Hotel.” The plans sufficiently explain the general disposition. Wide corridors lead to both divisions, and are sufficiently commodious to serve as waiting-rooms. Two dressing-rooms are provided to each private bath, which gives an opportunity of working them more expeditiously. Douche, shower, vapour, and commodious charity baths for both sexes are provided in each wing with distinct entrances. A room for drinking the tepid waters from St. Anne’s Well, and another for drinking a strong chalybeate brought from a hill adjoining, are provided in the same building. The natural wing, from the character of the site, exhibits only one facade, executed in the stone of the neighbourhood of a rich warm colour, and there being no windows or doors in it, three fountains in fluted niches are introduced to give life to the elevation.

The hot wing, which exhibits two considerable facades, is constructed in iron and glass, producing a variety, and enabling the architect to give the utmost degree of lightness and cheerfulness to the interior. The roofs are formed on the “ridge and furrow” principal in nine and ten foot spans; the gutter plate lying immediately on top of internal partitions, or on light ornamental iron girders over large baths. The whole is glazed with Hartleys “rough plate,” 24 oz. to the foot, in one length and about 15 inches wide. Sun-blinds are provided internally suspended from the ridge to rods fixed to gutter-plates with the facility of being drawn at pleasure. The baths are lined with Rufford and Finch’s patent glazed porcelain bricks built in with the ordinary brickwork. The bottoms are formed with veined Sicilian marble, and the whole of the private and douche baths in the hot wing are formed with similar marble. The natural wing is warmed by means of hot water, and the hot wing by steam from the boilers. The general works have been executed by Messrs Sanders and Woolcott, of London; the boilers, tanks, warming-pipes, etc. by Mr. William Jeakes, of Bloomsbury; the iron work for the hot wing by Mr. John Walker, of York; and the plastering of the hot wing by Mr. Riddell, of London. The whole, as we have already said, has been erected at the cost of his grace the Duke of Devonshire, from the designs of Mr. Henry Currey. [Builder Vol XI 20 August 1853 page 537]

Reference           The builder Vol XI 20 August 1853 page 535-537 with plans and illustrations