Wrexham Swimming Baths






 
This is my favourite building in Wrexham. I used to go here alot as a kid and I was always really in love with the shape of the building. 
The shape of the roof reminds me of a diver in mid-air or the shape of a swimmers arms as they swim butterfly stroke.
A long time on and the building is still amazing, just a bit older and more dog-eared in places.
Wrexham baths were described on their opening in 1970 as "hyperbolic, parabolic and diabolic". The building required a £4.1m overhaul in 1997, but is now a locally admired landmark.
The building has a hyperbolic paraboloid roof , of which, it is said, that there are only two in Europe.


I am yet to discover who the architect was who designed the building.

Wrexham's first proper swimming baths were on Tuttle Street. Many local people have fond memories of the baths. They were ahead of their time environmentally because the town's incinerator created the heat to keep the water warm.




Comments

Pedro Varela said…
How about his one? http://www.flickr.com/photos/rucativava/4377596800/in/set-72157622870848470/
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Unknown said…
I was one of the Gang of Four contractors employed by Baileys Roofing Ltd of Bristol we installed the verbal water proofing to the roof by flame lamps supported by ropes around the waist on the sloping roof , at the end of the day we used to bathe our feet because of the ache of working on the slope this was in the 1960 s l am now 82 years of age seeing the picture brought back memories.