3-034-683 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Southport Sea-Water Baths, 1871. 'The pleasant and healthy little town of Southport, which is situated on the coast of Lancashire, about twenty miles north of Liverpool, and near the entrance from the Irish Sea into the wide estuary of the Ribble, has become a favourite place of summer resort for the people of Liverpool and Manchester and the other manufacturing or commercial towns in that county...[An] improvement, for the...purpose of accommodating visitors to this enterprising marine sanitarium, is the erection of the new building shown in our Illustration, where sea-water baths, with a good space for swimming, and with all the comforts that can be desired by ladies or gentlemen in quest of hydropathic enjoyment, whether hot or cold, may now be had at every hour of the day, and in all states of the tide or weather. The air of Southport is pure, fresh, and mild, and only the difficulty of getting at the water has been a hindrance to its progress; but this objection seems now to be in some measure removed, and we may expect that it will henceforth be the rival of Blackpool as a Lancashire watering-place'. The Victoria Baths were built in sandstone in French Classical style. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.