Ironmonger Row Baths
Ironmonger Row Baths
We worked with Tim Ronalds Architects on the £16m refurbishment of these historic baths, providing both the structural engineering and conservation advice.
Ironmonger Row Baths is a Grade II listed swimming pool complex in Islington. Built in two phases in the 1930s, it contained individual baths, a public laundry, two swimming pools and Turkish Baths.
The first phase of building, opened in 1931, is a load-bearing brick structure with a heavily rusticated base, tall gabled roof and a deep double cornice. Conceived as a public bathhouse and laundry that was also a war memorial, inside were a public laundry and children’s nursery on the ground floor, and two levels of bathroom cubicles above: 41 on the first floor, 41 on the second, laid out around light wells and segregated for men and women. In 1932 a much larger swimming pool extension was in a slightly plainer but closely related style, but steel-framed beneath the brick. Most of these functions remained and the building had a large and loyal user base.
A key aim of the project was to improve the facilities and the flexibility of the centre. To achieve this, we installed complex transfer structures to provide open-plan and column-free spaces. Our work also involved providing improved access for the less able into the main pool tank and raising the water level flush with its edges. The original children’s pool beyond was also rebuilt as a larger training pool with adjustable depth. Above this, where a return run of seating was removed, is a new exercise studio.
The Turkish baths in the basement, which include a plunge pool, marble massage slabs and hot rooms were retained and reincorporated into a new, much larger spa beneath both phases of the original building.
One of the biggest interventions was to shift the entrance to the open south side of the building, inserting a new foyer into the slot where the two original phases meet. Beyond this, the main staircase core to the building with its ornamental balusters remains: a new lift has been inserted into a former light well.
The project involved the complex task of incorporating modern services that had to be threaded through a listed building to provide the levels of heat, humidity control and air quality now demanded for in a modern leisure centre. All the insulation and the removal of corroded steel columns and replacement in concrete was undertaken in close consultation with Historic England, in which our conservation team were involved in analysing the history and significance of the building as the baseline for design development and to justify the substantial alterations needed to keep the building open as a pool. We also engaged in negotiations with Islington Council and Historic England, resulting in a successful listed building consent application.
Finally, the refurbished building benefits from a new combined heat and power system which connects various public and private housing blocks and the refurbished baths. This helped the building towards its ‘excellent’ BREEAM rating. As part of the project’s pursuit of a BREEAM Excellent rating, we also undertook a BREEAM assessment of the impact of possible carbon reduction measures on the listed building, and we continued to provide advice to the architects as they developed the detailed design.
The project went on to win a RIBA National Award, a Civic Trust Award and an AJ Retrofit Award.
Awards won:
RIBA National Award for Architecture
Civic Trust Award
AJ Retrofit Award: Winner, Civic & Community
Selwyn Goldsmith Universal Design Award Finalist
The Islington Society Architecture and Conservation Award
Client: Islington Council
Architect: Tim Ronalds Architects