Nechells Baths

I love, love, love this building and whilst it is sadly no longer a baths they have maintained so many of the original features.
Once properly inside the building you’ll discover the former single changing rooms are now the buggy stalls. A couple were turned into listening booths that were meant to have some fun audio plating in but alas I fear they haven’t worked in a long time. As you walk around this community centre/​office space/​community café you will find hidden treasure feature everywhere so long as you really, really look. There is even a ‘Being John Malkovich’ half door, I won’t tell you where as spying it is half the excitement.
This is a fine example of the regeneration and restoration of a building with a more practical purpose for it’s current community being executed amazingly well. I’m sure that if the purpose of the building needed changing again then the modular way they’ve added in false ceilings and floors means that it could probably be turned back into a public baths. Finding the old in the new feels like an exciting treasure hunt and when old public baths like the ones at Stirchley are still fighting a battle to save it then this one shows why we should.

Nechells Baths is an example of when Heritage Lottery Funding ends up going to the right place. The building is stunning — Edwardian, and obviously once upon a time a swimming baths.
Now, many many years later, through persistance from grassroots organisations and support from the council as well as HLF, it has been transformed into a community venue hosting a range of community businesses as well as a café with cheap and cheerful offers for anyone passing by.
Nechells is misunderstood by people who’ve not spent time there. I’ve run workshops in the carpark of the bath, and with the sun fortunately shining down, we had an endless stream of children, young people and families coming over and chatting to us and having a go at the activities we were running — including a couple of boy racers who are usually seen as ‘trouble’ but who got SO excited by what we were doing, they went home to get more drawings they’d secretly done and wanted to share! Brilliant.