Harpurhey Public Baths and Laundry

Image: © David Dixon Taken: 5 Mar 2014

Looking along Rochdale Road (A664) towards the former swimming baths. Harpurhey Baths are one of numerous municipal baths constructed throughout the country around the turn of the century, following various social reforms, and public health acts. The baths complexes were principally for social amenity and hygiene, rather than primarily for recreation. The Harpurhey Baths were designed by Henry Price, the same architect who designed the Grade II* listed Victoria Baths. Built in 1909 (Image]), they were designed to fit an already occupied site, which contained a school and a pub as well as terraced houses and shops lining Rochdale Road. The baths provided an extremely important social facility in the area and has been associated with community use and gathering, for over 100 years. The male baths closed in 2001, after serious defects were discovered. Since closure, the baths building has been incorporated in the neighbouring North Manchester Sixth Form Sixth Form College building. The college has transformed the building into an award-winning exhibition space for students and the community. Harpurhey Baths and Laundry was designated as a Grade II listed building in 1994 while still in use (English Heritage ID:457194 http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-457194-harpurhey-baths-and-laundry- British Listed Buildings). The Way We Were: Harpurhey — A century in the lives of the real 'people like us' http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/nostalgia/way-were-harpurhey--century-1720317 includes some old pictures of the baths, including interior views, in the slideshow.

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