‘A monument to civic disobedience’

The other day, I was fortunate to witness a magical show of dance, light and sound in the recently revealed raw space of the old boiler house of Jacob’s Wells Baths.

Cast Light by the internationally acclaimed Squidsoup marks an encouraging turning point in the fortunes of a historic Bristol building that was of huge social consequence but has been on the brink of dereliction since its closure in 1977.

My first swim as a new Hotwells resident in the 1960s was in the old Jacob’s Wells Baths which had opened in 1889 to give the local ‘working poor’ population the opportunity of a clean and healthy wash and swim as a vital alternative to the then disease-ridden city docks.

Jacob’s Wells Baths in 1904 – image: Bristol Archives

Jacob’s Wells Baths in 2026 – photo: George Ferguson

The closure of the baths in 1977 was a real blow to the area but the exuberant red brick and terracotta Victorian building on Jacob’s Wells Road with its huge glazed lantern roof had proved an expensive beast for the council to continue to maintain and run.

For several years from the early 80s, the building was kept alive as a community dance centre but its deteriorating condition proved too much to keep it in a safe state and it closed in 2016.

While there have been other attempts to find new uses to justify its repair and re-use it was only last year that Trinity Arts were granted a Community Asset Transfer by Bristol City Council to create a multi-purpose community, arts, youth and educational hub close to the city centre and adjacent to hundreds of council flats in St Peter’s House and Brandon House.

Jacob’s Wells Baths could become a vibrant community hub for Hotwells and Cliftonwood – photo: Martin Booth

The Cast Light performance marked a vitally important first step towards that aim, demonstrating the potential of the repurposed spaces within the building including the principal space of the big pool that is no longer viable for its original purpose but will house larger performances and a variety of activities.

This brave project serves so many purposes:

• It reminds us of the appalling living conditions that working class Victorians were subjected to that led to the building of the baths
• It makes good use of the building’s embodied energy, as we should be doing not just with historic buildings
• It provides an opportunity for employment and apprenticeships in the building crafts
• It will provide a social and educational hub for the local living and working community
• It will be a gathering place for young people, many of who are going through a mental health crisis
• It will be a centre for the practice and promotion of the performing arts
• It will inspire others to take on challenging building rescue projects to serve many purposes

Thanks to Emma Harvey and her team at Trinity Arts for having the courage to take this on and to demonstrate that we should never give up on the art of the impossible.

As she said in her introduction to Cast Light, it will be “a monument to civic disobedience”. How very Bristol!

This is an opinion piece by George Ferguson; architect, Bristol’s former elected mayor and the creator of the Tobacco Factory project

Main photo: George Ferguson

Read next:

• Fundraiser launched to transform Jacob’s Wells Baths
• New artistic pilot programme begins at former swimming pool
• In photos: Squidsoup’s ‘Beyond Submergence’ at Propyard