# Elvet Baths - September 2012



## chapmand (Sep 30, 2012)

In the 1920's, the first building was described as old-fashioned and inconvenient by Durham City Council. They later took full advantage of a government aid to construct a new building to provide the city of public swimming pools, slipper baths and wash houses. It was this building that is thought to be believed that started off school swimming lessons.

John Wilfred Green designed and engineered the build of the new building that was officially opened in 1932 at a cost of around £31,500. Separate entrances were provided for men and women, with a ticket office between. The entrances led to separate waiting halls, where doors opened onto the first and second class Slipper bath corridors and Bath Halls.

Today, the site has been heavily vandalised and very little remains of the old wash rooms,showers and toilets that were used everyday by the general public. The building has 3 floors within its walls, the first being the pumps and filters below the pools, will tunnels running the length of the pools carrying the pipe work for filters and drainage. The ground floor holds a number of rooms, 2 of which holding the pools, other rooms are found nearby by. These housed the showers,changing rooms,toilets and reception area again these have been heavily vandalised with graffiti. In certain areas the cieilings have collapsed through. Finally the 3rd floor holds the offices of the workers that onced worked there and the balcony running along both sides of the main large pool.

Anyway, enough of the essay and time for some pics. 


























































































































hope you guys enjoy!!


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## Judderman62 (Sep 30, 2012)

nice shots and report


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## sploradora (Sep 30, 2012)

nice, shame about the graffiti in this place... i love graffiti but its ruined the place


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## abel101 (Sep 30, 2012)

as much as i like my manors and churches, places like this I find appealing, with or without graffiti, its still very attractive in its own decayed form. 
The graffiti of course makes it look worse or better sometimes, but still very nice report 

thanks for sharing and keep them coming


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## matthewadams (Sep 30, 2012)

Love this place and loving your photos!! 
graffiti is amazing in this place it makes to photos so much more interesting!!


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## flyboys90 (Sep 30, 2012)

Tasty photos love the columns,thanks for sharing.


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## krela (Sep 30, 2012)

Looks like my kinda project! Shame it's so far away.


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## chapmand (Sep 30, 2012)

cheers guys, i did visit this site twice in two days after failing to get access into another site close by. On the 2nd visit, i did bump into some other explorers that were there for the first time and remember using the baths as youngsters. Not sure who was more shocked me or them when we first spotted each other haha.


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## Pedrfardd (Sep 30, 2012)

Amazing - great photos .. Restore restore restore... :-C


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## chapmand (Sep 30, 2012)

all the comments are much apprieciated guys. For someone thats kinda new to all this compared to others i do try. Would be good to meet up with others local for an explore sometime


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## SeffyboyUK (Sep 30, 2012)

Man I do love a swimming pool! Nice one  



krela said:


> Looks like my kinda project! Shame it's so far away.



Was going to say, you'd do wanders with this place!


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## UrbanX (Oct 1, 2012)

Is a shame it's I that state, but there are some lovely features shining through, the barrel vault ceiling, the 'No Boots' sign! Love it!


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## steve2109 (Oct 1, 2012)

Great looking site to visit, something a bit different, great pictures too, thanks


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## chapmand (Oct 1, 2012)

UrbanX said:


> Is a shame it's I that state, but there are some lovely features shining through, the barrel vault ceiling, the 'No Boots' sign! Love it!



its the little features like this that makes the place worth another visit


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## Jet48 (Oct 2, 2012)

Love old pools great photos Thanks


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## the_man_1984 (Oct 3, 2012)

Nice one mate. Cheers for posting.


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## UEP-Wales (Oct 3, 2012)

As already said, it's such a shame to see it in such a state  Great pics though, cheers for posting them up!


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## Andy Wipes (Dec 22, 2012)

Great pictures. What a shame & what a waste. Are you using HD?


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## MrDan (Dec 23, 2012)

Very interesting to see all the pipework, a shame to see something like this in such a state although there are a couple of pieces of graffiti there that I can actually appreciate such as the Blaze in the 2nd photo and DNE in the 3rd.


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## Ramsgatonian (Dec 31, 2012)

There's some beautiful natural decay here, it's just a shame about all the meaningless graffiti left by total morons...

These people are largely responsible for my misanthropy, because of their need to destruct rather than construct. 

Although the site is already in a sorry state, thank you for documenting it before it gets any worse!


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## sfikiemtienvoi (Jan 1, 2013)

*Các chuong trình ki?m ti?n Online b?n nên tham gia trong giai do?n hi?n nay: ADIT, SFI, Worldprelaunch, Eimimo*
*Tham kh?o các chuong trình khác t?i dây*


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## Sshhhh... (Jan 1, 2013)

Oh what a shame is got in this state, such a fantastic structure! Still, it looks like a fab mooch, wouldnt mind seeing this myself. Thanks for the great report


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