3-043-870 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

New baths and assembly-rooms at Southsea, 1871. Watering place offering '...the most convenient and comfortable arrangements for open-air sea bathing, with halls of public entertainment...The building has been erected...by the contractors, Messrs. Neave and Fry, from the designs of Messrs. Davis and Emanuel, architects...The site is close to the pier and harbour; it has nearly 540 ft. frontage to the sea, and is about 130 ft. deep...The property...includes some 1000 ft. of foreshore, in front of and next to the building, which is to be used for sea-bathing from machines...[There is a] gentlemen's swimming bath, having a water surface of 70 ft. by 30 ft., and thirty dressing boxes. Above this swimming-bath are the gentlemen's private baths, of hot and cold sea and fresh waters, thirteen in number, with the usual offices. The centre of the entire buildings is occupied by a second swimming-bath for the use of ladies, with seventeen dressing-boxes. On the upper floor are the nine private ladies' baths of hot and cold sea and fresh waters, with offices...a spare plot of land is reserved for a yard for the bathing-machines to be hauled up and stored here in the winter season...On the land side will be the shrubbery, garden, and croquet grounds'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.