The Bristol Post has explored how Jacob’s Wells Baths, a historic bathhouse in Bristol, has been given a new lease of life after plans to reopen as a swimming pool and leisure facility were approved and it will reopen in a few years.
image Bristol Post website
The Bristol Post writes:
People in the public gallery at City Hall cheered as the council’s ruling cabinet passed plans for Jacob’s Wells Baths in Hotwells.
Opened in 1889 as a bathhouse for the poor, the Grade II-listed building closed in the 1970s. It then reopened as a dance and arts space but costly maintenance bills prompted the council to work up a community asset transfer deal with leisure developer Fusion Lifestyle, to secure the future of the building.
The company plans to transform the building into a swimming pool, which it hopes to open within four years. Sally Silverman, of local group Jacob’s Wells Community Hub, said in a statement: ‘We would like to say a huge thank-you to everyone who has worked so hard over the past year to save the Jacob’s Wells Baths. The Jacob’s Wells Baths were built for the public health of the community and we are very excited that this will be top of the agenda once more. Everything we know about Fusion Lifestyle gives us confidence that the new Jacob’s Wells Baths will have ‘the widest possible use by the widest range of local people’.’
Bristol City Council has agreed to grant Fusion Lifestyle a 35-year lease on the building, for a peppercorn rent. The council also has the right to claim a share of future revenue from the project. The company – which runs several leisure centres including Shepton Mallet Lido, Wells Sport and Fitness and centres in London – will spend millions restoring the building to its former glory.
