The ‘New’ Natural Mineral Baths | The Crescent BUXTON | Derbyshire Proposed Internal Alterations to Nestlé Waters Pool Room (formerly The Great Bath) Heritage Statement January 2018 Clerk Bank House Clerk Bank LEEK Staffordshire ST13 5HE tel: 01538 373 477 fax: 01538 386 503 [email protected] www.ctdarchitects.co.uk architects | historic building advisors project managers | landscape and urban designers _______________________________________________________ The ‘New’ Natural Mineral Baths | The Crescent | BUXTON Heritage Statement _______________________________________________________ Proposed Internal Alterations to Nestlé Waters Pool Room (formerly The Great Bath) ________________________________________________________________ CONTENTS 1.0 History & Statement of Significance 3 2.0 Conservation Philosophy 10 3.0 Bibliography & References 12 NAS_Admin:PROJECTS:2017:1778 Nestle Waters Crescent Pump Room BUXTON:(D)consents:(Db)planning-LBC:1778 FINAL HS.docx ______________________________________________________ The ‘New’ Natural Mineral Baths | The Crescent | BUXTON Heritage Statement ______________________________________________________ Proposed Internal Alterations to Nestlé Waters Pool Room (formerly The Great Bath) ______________________________________________________ Page 2 of 12 NAS_Admin:PROJECTS:2017:1778 Nestle Waters Crescent Pump Room BUXTON:(D)consents:(Db)planning-LBC:1778 FINAL HS.docx ______________________________________________________ The ‘New’ Natural Mineral Baths | The Crescent | BUXTON Heritage Statement ______________________________________________________ Proposed Internal Alterations to Nestlé Waters Pool Room (formerly The Great Bath) ______________________________________________________ 1.0 HISTORY & STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE ______________________________________________________ History and The Natural Mineral Baths are sandwiched between two fine Listed buildings; the Old Background: Hall Hotel (Grade II*) on the west side and The Crescent (Grade I) on the east (fig.1), and are located on the site of earlier Medieval and Roman structures established some 2000 years ago to allow the taking of the high quality thermal spring waters that naturally rise through the limestone formations in this part of Buxton. Its special qualities have long been recognised and exploited for recreational, religious or curative purposes, which was first recorded in 1460 by William Worcester. Visits to ‘take the waters’ by royalty and nobility in the 16th-century helped to establish the town, which in turn encouraged the Duke of Devonshire’s development of The Crescent and the Georgian spa town of Buxton becoming one of Europe’s leading spas and a rival to Bath. Set in the context of a group of historic and highly significant spa buildings (fig.1) - including the Old Hall Hotel, The Crescent, The Pump Room, the Thermal Baths, The Square, Buxton Opera House and the Pavilion Gardens - the Natural Mineral Baths were re-built in 1712 by John Barker, and enlarged in 1750. In 1851-53 Henry Currey refurbished them to create new hydropathic facilities on the site of the earlier baths offering hot, cold and tepid baths. Fig.1 Watercolour painting of Buxton Crescent attributed to W. Cowen, c. 1850. Looking from the southwest down The Slopes, with the Natural Mineral Baths dwarfed and sandwiched between the Old Hall Hotel to the left, and The Crescent (source: https://www.bcd-urbex.com/buxton-crescent-hotel-and-spa-baths-uk/) Page 3 of 12 NAS_Admin:PROJECTS:2017:1778 Nestle Waters Crescent Pump Room BUXTON:(D)consents:(Db)planning-LBC:1778 FINAL HS.docx ______________________________________________________ The ‘New’ Natural Mineral Baths | The Crescent | BUXTON Heritage Statement ______________________________________________________ Proposed Internal Alterations to Nestlé Waters Pool Room (formerly The Great Bath) ______________________________________________________ The ‘New‘ Natural Mineral Baths were re-modelled in 1924 and the surviving internal neo- classical/Art Deco style ceramic wall tiling dates from this period (figs.5 & 6). They were opened by Sir Humphrey Rollerston, President of the Royal College of Physicians. The Baths as found today date from their 1937 re-construction as public swimming pools, which operated until their closure in 1972 following the provision of a new swimming pool in the nearby Pavilion Gardens. In 1986 a third of the ground floor of the building was used as the Tourist Information Centre until this closed in approx. 2011. The Natural Mineral Baths were Listed Grade II in 1951. Fig.2 The remodelled 1850’s Natural Mineral Baths, c.1980’s prior to the creation of the access doorway into the Buxton Mineral Water Company ‘Spring Bath’ pump room through the left-hand arched window (source: www.picturethepast.org.uk - photographer: D D Brumhead) The ‘Great Bath’, ‘Gentleman’s No.1 Bath’, or ‘Spring Bath’ as the most westerly of the baths has been known, subsequently became the source for commercial extraction by the Buxton Mineral Water Company in the 1980’s, after the earlier closure of the baths to the public (fig.2). The natural Gritstone-lined, constantly fed, thermal Spring Bath was initially protected by a transparent acrylic sheet rigid roof with the water being piped through the cellar of the Natural Mineral Baths to the mineral water bottling plant then located on Station Road. This cover was later replaced with the modern stainless steel and acrylic pyramidal hood found today (figs.3 & 4) and the water is now piped some 2.5 miles to Nestlé Waters state-of-the-art bottling plant at Waterswallows Lane on the northeast outskirts of the town which opened in 2013. Page 4 of 12 NAS_Admin:PROJECTS:2017:1778 Nestle Waters Crescent Pump Room BUXTON:(D)consents:(Db)planning-LBC:1778 FINAL HS.docx ______________________________________________________ The ‘New’ Natural Mineral Baths | The Crescent | BUXTON Heritage Statement ______________________________________________________ Proposed Internal Alterations to Nestlé Waters Pool Room (formerly The Great Bath) ______________________________________________________ Figs.3-6 The interior of the Nestlé Waters pump room showing the modern stainless steel hood over the Spring Bath (top left), the pumps and pipework (top right), and the 1920’s Art Deco style wall tiling (source: ctd architects) Page 5 of 12 NAS_Admin:PROJECTS:2017:1778 Nestle Waters Crescent Pump Room BUXTON:(D)consents:(Db)planning-LBC:1778 FINAL HS.docx ______________________________________________________ The ‘New’ Natural Mineral Baths | The Crescent | BUXTON Heritage Statement ______________________________________________________ Proposed Internal Alterations to Nestlé Waters Pool Room (formerly The Great Bath) ______________________________________________________ Fig.7 The Natural Mineral Baths, December 2015 showing the Nestlé Waters pump room access doorway through the left-hand arched opening (source: https://jackdeighton.co.uk/2015/12/31/buxton/) The uninterrupted supply and consistency of quality of the mineral water is essential as Buxton Natural Mineral Water is the UK’s biggest bottled mineral water producer, and Nestlé Waters, the worlds number one bottled water company with 95 production sites in 34 countries, offering 49 unique brands of bottled water. As part of its continual drive to ensure this quality and consistency is maintained, Nestlé Waters wish to improve the hygienic conditions of their ‘pump room’ and to further protect the ‘Spring Bath’ and the natural source of Buxton Natural Mineral Water from any risk of contamination, by constructing a new modern hygienic ‘room-within-a-room’ to sit inside the existing 1920’s Art Deco style tiled walls and painted plaster vaulted ceiling (fig.8). The new ‘internal room’ will be constructed from a proprietary flame-proof, food-safe, self-supporting HCFC-free insulated wall and ceiling panels, held within a self-supporting galvanised steel channel system, with food-safe acrylic inspection panels/windows and doors. The walls and ceiling panels will butt-up to the existing historic tiled wall and ceiling finish, which will be first protected with a proprietary corrugated plastic damage protection sheet. The existing modern ceramic floor tiles will be re-finished. There will be no mechanical fixings penetrating through into the historic finishes or fabric. Page 6 of 12 NAS_Admin:PROJECTS:2017:1778 Nestle Waters Crescent Pump Room BUXTON:(D)consents:(Db)planning-LBC:1778 FINAL HS.docx ______________________________________________________ The ‘New’ Natural Mineral Baths | The Crescent | BUXTON Heritage Statement ______________________________________________________ Proposed Internal Alterations to Nestlé Waters Pool Room (formerly The Great Bath) ______________________________________________________ Fig.8 Indicative layout plan showing proposed new ‘internal room’ and location of ‘break’ tank (source: MHPSS Ltd.) In addition to the new ‘internal room’, a new galvanised steel staircase and internal lobby doorway is proposed at the east end from the existing ground level entrance lobby; and new stainless steel ‘break tank’ is to be installed within an existing alcove on the north side of the ‘pump room’. This will involve the removal of a modern timber panelled door and frame and a narrow modern painted brick infill wall which abuts the original tiled pier to the ceiling vault (fig.9). Page 7 of 12 NAS_Admin:PROJECTS:2017:1778 Nestle Waters Crescent Pump Room BUXTON:(D)consents:(Db)planning-LBC:1778 FINAL