Govanhill Baths Community Trust
Registered Scottish Charity No: SC 036162 
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Our initial bid to convert the baths to a Healthy Living Centre  was  considered by the council on September 8^th and we have received the following message from the Project Manager, Frank Sheridan

To Govanhill Baths Community Trust (9th September 2005)

The DRS Committee at it's meeting on 8th September approved a report on the Govanhill Pool.

The report recommended that your Trust be given a period of six months to prepare a full feasibility study, business plan, and a detailed funding package, to be submitted to the Director of Development and Regeneration Services, no later than the 14th March 2006.

Please be aware that the funding package requirement means that the money will have to be in place to undertake the project, and a promise of future finance will not be acceptable.

Good Luck,

Frank Sheridan

Project Manager.

In fact this information apparently was given to the press on 1st September before the council approved the decision.  

The Evening Times reported the story 2nd September 

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5043039.html

You will note that the national company, Crudens Estates, is also being considered.  This is a company that has close links with housing and regeneration developments Glasgow through the Glasgow Alliance;

 (http://www.glasgow-alliance.co.uk/contacts/board.asp) 

The Chair of the Alliance’s Finance and Human Resources Committee as currently reported at its published on its web site is John Gallacher of Crudens Estates. 

There is now a considerable amount of work to be done since putting together a package as called for in just 6 months presents the sort of difficulties that will not be faced by a national company - that will have resources to hand.  Nevertheless, we continue to be heartened by the fact that Historic Scotland have made it clear that they prefer the baths to remain as baths and that the List B status be preserved. 

Its main points are; 

(web site at http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/govanhillbaths)

When Govanhill Baths closed in 2001, they were the only original, substantially unaltered public baths in the city still in use

  

  The baths must be marketed to a restoring purchaser before any application to demolish the building

  A feasibility study showed that 'complementary swimming' or a business centre offered the best new use

  A survey of its condition found it to be fair, with some repair required

  Historic Scotland is receptive to an innovative solution to secure a future for the baths

Conclusion: ' ....As a major part of Glasgow’s cultural heritage, any significant elements of a ‘steamie’ or baths should be conserved in some way. They are a very threatened building type.....Any proposed reuse of Govanhill Baths must take into account much more than simply the preservation of a façade: the spaces given over to the pools are of importance and their reuse must be considered extremely carefully"

The Board is already busy preparing to meet this deadline and is currently inviting tenders for the completion of a full community feasibility study.  

HISTORIC SCOTLAND SAYS AT ITS WEBSITE:

http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/govanhillbaths

Aesthetic: high at the elevation to Calder Street, and the two larger pools. Medium to high at the North elevation (Diocletian windows perhaps inspired by Roman Diocletian Baths); Neutral or intrusive in the case of the two side elevations and the many small partitioned rooms inside.

Technological: high in the case of the reinforced concrete arched spans, in ascending order of significance according to the width spanned. Low in the case of the plant and modern chimney.

Historic: high as represented in the plaque to the front, indicating foundation stone laid by Lord Provost a month before outbreak of the First World War, defining the end of an era of municipal provision when Glasgow was at the peak of its confidence.

Social: very high, as representing the most complete of the municipal baths and wash houses in the city that was setting for “The Steamie”. Of particular significance to women’s history and to working, artisan and lower middle class history, to sporting history and ideas of self-improvement developed in Victorian types and persisting today. The venue has been used for sport and recreation by the Govanhill community, including waves of new citizens, from 1914 to the recent past.