Description

TQ29SE BOWES ROAD N11
790/22/10047 (South side)
07-AUG-00 Bowes Road Library and Arnos Pool

GV II

Library, swimming pool and caretaker's flat. 1935-39 by W.T. Curtis, Middlesex County Architect, and H.W. Burchett, Assistant Architect to the Education Committee. Brown brick laid in English bond; flat felt roofs.
PLAN: library and pool form distinct wings, the former running east-west, the latter north-south at the east end of the library.
LIBRARY EXTERIOR: 2 storeys, the library element to the east is a 5-window range; offices to west with first-floor residential flat of irregular fenestration. Tower at east end with double metal doors to ground floor under a flat hood in angle between library and pool: one free-standing brick pier with a ball support. Tower with tall single semi-circular metal window with moulded corbel and pinnacle. Ground floor of library with 8 9-paned metal casements under slightly oversailing stone string course and with a continuous sill course. First floor lit through 4 tall 2-light metal casements with stone surrounds and moulded sills. Flat plain parapet coping. 4 glazed roof lights.
Offices with recessed double timber doors to left and single flush door to right, with a glazed panel to its left. Between doors are 6 9-paned metal casements, with continuous oversailing string course and sill band.
Residential flat is rendered and colourwashed. 5 metal casements to north of varying size. Flat roof with one stack.
West return with long glazed panel to north, and 2 9-paned metal casements to first floor of 2-storey south element.
South elevation: library part with 2-light and single-light metal casements to ground floor with sill band and oversailing string course. 4 tall 2-light metal casements to upper floor. Offices lit through a continuous frieze of metal casements to ground floor with one 2-light casement either side. Oversailing string course, above which are 4 small single-light windows. Upper floor with 5 2-light metal casements.
INTERIOR: Entrance leads to staircase hall. Solid baluster staircase, swept round at bottom, and carrying a flat brass handrail on lower supporting pin with a central disk; flat metal supports otherwise. Reading room on first floor: 2 double-leaf glazed doors from staircase landing. Roof supported on 4 rolled steel joists.
Ground floor with plain corridors, offices and a book store with metal shelving.
ARNOS POOL EXTERIOR: single-storey. Entrance to north consisting of a half-round projection with double timber doors east and west, set within recesses and with glazed upper panels to each leaf. Between doors to north is a projecting 7-light window. Oversailing cornice. Flat roof. To west of entrance is a single-storey block (changing rooms) lit through a frieze of metal casements under the eaves. Far west end with one circular port-hole window.
East elevation: single-storey element with 2 port-hole windows and a frieze of 4 3-light metal casements under the eaves.
Main pool raised above other elements and lit through a continuous frieze of clerestory windows east and west alternating with ventilation louvres. Overhanging cornice and flat roof. Various service buildings to south.
INTERIOR: entrance and ticket office developed into building to form an oval plan. Oval roof light with Vitruvian scroll in plaster modified to represent waves. 4 rows of circular light bricks in flat ceiling. Canted ticket office front at south end with a 1/1 unhorned sash. Doors to right lead to pool.
Tiled walls and ceiling. Rolled steel joists support the roof, with late a C20 suspended ceiling blocking the clerestory windows.

Included as a good, little-altered example of a municipal complex by one of the most progressive local authority architect's departments of the 1930s. The baths and pool form a group with the slightly later clinic built alongside.

Sources
Middlesex County Council, Commemorative Opening Brochure, 18 May 1939

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q27086813

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  The Victorian House Manual (2nd Edition): How They Were Built, Improvements & Refurbishment, Solutions to All Common Defects - Includes Relevant ... ... Properties (Haynes Manual) (Haynes Manuals)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)