The History of our Hall

Listed grade II (1987)
Foundation stone laid, 14 March, 1906, Opened by Lady Mayoress J.M.Ombridge, 8 April 1907.

<<<<CLICK HERE TO SEE AN OLD MAP OF GIBSON STREET BATHS>>>

CULTIVATED CLEANLINESS IN NEWCASTLE

Baths and wash-houses, which provided warm plunge baths, with washing and drying houses for the use of the humbler classes, are now a vanished social phenomenon. Their provision can be viewed alongside the more general movement during the middle of the nineteenth century towards sanitary reform in towns and cities. Much publicity and pioneering work was instigated by a variety of charitable and philanthropic organisations – the most important in this context being the ‘Committee for Promoting the Establishment of Baths and Wash-houses for the Labouring Classes’ formed in 1844. On October 16^th 1844 the Committee held a public meeting at the Mansion House in London, to promote its ideas and appeal for subscriptions to build a model baths and wash-house. A site was obtained in Goulstone, Whitechapel and building commenced in 1845.

“The dwellings of large numbers of the labouring population were painfully overcrowded, to the total neglect of personal and domestic cleanliness, leading to intemperance, recklessness and extreme demoralisation, that they had not the means of preserving personal comfort and health, even when they endeavoured to do so, from the necessity of washing and drying clothes in the rooms which they lived, and from the want of adequate facilities for bathing; that of all the means proposed to enable the industrious classes to cultivate habits of cleanliness and to escape the injurious effects of washing at home, none was more promising of beneficial results that the general establishment, in large towns and the populous districts, of public baths and wash-houses to be open at moderate charges” (Extract from a petition submitted by the Committee to the House of Commons, May 1846).

The extract above highlights the need at that time for baths and wash-houses. The petition was submitted in support of the passage of a Bill, which gained Royal Assent on 26^th August 1846 and became ‘An Act to Encourage the Establishment of Public Baths and Wash-houses’ The Committee continued their campaign through pamphlets, the daily press and sending copies of their May petition to all the public authorities in England and Wales. One certainly reached the Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne – this being recorded at a meeting of the Town Council on 17^th June 1846.

The Act enabled those wishing to establish baths and wash-houses to obtain a loan for their construction. In November 1846 the Newcastle Town Council received a petition from the Guardians of the Poor requesting that the Act should be put into effect. On 3^rd February 1847 the Town Improvement Committee suggested baths should be erected at Garth Heads and a site was chosen at the corner of Jubilee Street and City Road. Consequently, Newcastle’s first public baths and wash-house was opened on 18^th September 1848.

Having observed the success and popularity of these baths, servicing the Eastern part of the City, there was a demand to provide similar accommodation in the well populated Western area of the City. In September 1850 the Town Improvement Committee recommended the establishment of baths and wash-houses at the foot of Gallowgate. This was agreed upon, but because of administrative and financial difficulty the decision to build these baths was not made until 14^th January 1857. They were built on the south side of Gallowgate on the corner of Newgate Street. These were then demolished in the late 1800s when Gallowgate was widened for trams, and a new baths and wash-house was built on the north side of Gallowgate which opened in 1896. These were then demolished in 1979 – part of which was retained and is now at Beamish Open Air Museum.

Other baths and wash-houses of this time in Newcastle were, Elswick – 1886 (demolished); Byker – 1886 (demolished); Westgate – 1886 (demolished); Benwell – 1924; Heaton – 1925 (demolished); Scotswood – 1933 (demolished); and of course Gibson Street Baths – 1906. (Tyne and Wear Industrial Monuments Trust Issue No 11 1981)

GIBSON STREET BATHS

Listed Building Description: Listed Grade II. Municipal washhouse and baths. 1906-7 by F. H. Holford (foundation stone). Sandstone ashlar; Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings. Brick chimney. Main elevation: 3 storeys, 3:3:3 bays, the central 3 under pediment. Round-arched surrounds double doors with fanlights in projecting side bays of central section, beneath open pediments; central bow window. Carved panels above doors; single sashes on upper floors flanking shallow 2-storey oriel. 3 bays at either side have stone cross windows except for first floor which has row of 8 windows, stone-mullioned. Sill strings. Parapet.