120th Birthday Speech – Rebecca Mills

Hello everyone. And may I start by saying that it is a huge privilege to stand before you tonight as we celebrate 120 years of Victoria Baths.

My name is Rebecca Mills and I am a conservation architect with Donald Insall Associates, one of the country’s leading conservation architecture and heritage consultancy practices. For the past year, I have had the privilege of leading the architectural team working on the feasibility study and emerging vision for the future of Victoria Baths.

As conservation architects, we spend our lives working with historic places, helping to understand what makes them special, what they mean to the people who care about them, and how they can be adapted and protected for future generations.

At Donald Insall Associates, we have spent more than six decades working with some of the most important historic buildings in the country. But our philosophy is a simple one. We do not believe that heritage is something to be frozen in time, but rather something that should be understood, cared for, and shaped for the future. We often say that we conserve buildings not by preserving them, but by helping them evolve. We begin by understanding what makes a place special, what is significant, what stories it tells, and why people care about it.

Anthony asked me to speak to you all today about what makes Victoria Baths special. Over my time at DIA, I have been lucky enough to work on many remarkable historic buildings. But every now and again, one comes along that has a special magic, that gets under your skin.

I can tell you why Victoria Baths is special on paper. It is a Grade II* listed building, placing it among a very small percentage of England’s most important historic buildings. Built between 1901 and 1906 to the designs of Henry Price, Manchester’s first City Architect, Victoria Baths was conceived at a time when Manchester believed deeply in public investment and public good. It was created to serve the growing communities of Longsight, Rusholme, Ardwick and Chorlton-upon-Medlock, providing facilities that many people could never have accessed in their own homes.

Manchester did not do things by halves. The city could easily have built something functional, instead, it built something beautiful. The glazed tiles. The mosaics. The stained glass. The terracotta. The extraordinary craftsmanship that surrounds us. Even today, 120 years later, it remains one of the most complete and architecturally significant Edwardian municipal bathhouses anywhere in the country.

But Victoria Baths is not simply a historic building. It is a living story. A story of civic ambition, public health, community pride, architectural excellence, resilience, creativity, and perhaps above all, collective determination. You step into the building and can imagine Victorian men talking business in the Turkish Baths whilst the suffragettes of Manchester plot their next campaign in the Laundry Room. As someone who has spent the last year studying the building in detail, I can confidently say that the more you learn, the more remarkable it becomes.

Victoria Baths represents a belief that public buildings should inspire. That everyday people deserve beauty, that architecture can improve lives and that communities are worth investing in.

For 87 years, Victoria Baths fulfilled that purpose. Families learned to swim here. People came here to wash, to exercise, to socialise, to compete, to relax and to meet one another.

Generations of Mancunians built memories here. Notable swimmers trained here. Community events took place here. It became woven into the social fabric of the city.

Then, in 1993, the Baths closed. Many buildings would not have survived that moment. Yet what happened next is perhaps the most remarkable chapter in the building’s history, and possibly the main reason I personally find the building so special. People refused to give up.

Volunteers, campaigners, heritage enthusiasts, local residents and supporters came together. The Victoria Baths Trust was formed. Countless people gave their time, energy and passion to protect this place. Because of them, Victoria Baths did not become another lost building. Instead, it became a symbol of what communities can achieve.

Since then, Victoria Baths has welcomed hundreds of thousands of visitors. It has become a venue for weddings, concerts, exhibitions, markets, filming, community events and heritage tours. It has continued to inspire. And yet, as conservation professionals, we have to be honest about the challenges that remain.

Over the last year, our team has undertaken one of the most comprehensive studies of Victoria Baths in recent decades.

We have surveyed every part of the building that we could safely access to understand its condition. We have examined roofs, walls, stained glass, structural systems, historic finishes, mechanical services and the spaces that visitors see, as well as many they never see. We have worked alongside engineers, sustainability specialists and the Victoria Baths Trust to develop a clear understanding of both the building’s challenges and its opportunities.

What has emerged is a picture of a building that remains incredibly robust and extraordinarily significant, but which also needs major investment if it is to fulfil its potential.

Victoria Baths remains on the Heritage at Risk register for good reason – I mean – there’s a whole fernery growing in the female pool and that definitely isn’t an original feature. Some of the work is simply about saving what is already here. We need to carry out extensive repairs to leaking roofs. We need to tackle water ingress that continues to damage historic fabric. We need to undertake conservation work to masonry, terracotta, stained glass, structural steel and decorative finishes.

Temporary repairs have been asked to last far longer than they were ever intended to, and a lack of available funds to carry out much needed fabric repairs have taken their toll on the building.

One of the most visible examples is the famous chimney. For over a century it has stood as a landmark on Manchester’s skyline. Its repair and conservation is one of the early priorities identified within the project. The second class and female pool halls are also in urgent need of repair works. The same applies to the historic water tanks and service structures at the rear of the site. They are as much piece of the building’s story as the pool halls and important parts of its operation, but they now require urgent attention and investment.

But this project is about much more than repairs. It is also about enabling Victoria Baths to work better for people.

In tandem with our condition survey we have developed a fully digitised Conservation Management plan to fully understand Victoria Baths’ current issues and opportunities. This utilises a Matterport Survey Model which allows full digital access to Victoria Baths that can be updated in real time as the building changes over time. This will be extremely useful in the future for use as a stakeholder engagement tool and to allow others to gain an accurate up-to-date understanding of the building.

One of the biggest challenges facing the Trust today is that this magnificent building was never designed to operate as a twenty-first-century cultural venue. It has limited accessibility, it has limited toilet facilities. Most of the building is unheated and the pool halls cannot function independently as event spaces. The proposals we are developing seek to address those challenges.

We are looking at new accessible entrances and improved circulation throughout the building. We are exploring lift provision that balances accessibility needs with the protection of historic fabric. We are developing a new sustainable heating and ventilation strategy that will allow the Baths to be used throughout the year, protecting both the building and the experience of its visitors, and we are creating proposals for new facilities that will support everything from major cultural events to community meetings and educational activities via the implementation of a new extension to the rear, which will be designed with the utmost respect to the historic fabric.

The vision is that each of the magnificent pool halls can once again become active, flexible spaces in their own right, spaces that can host performances, exhibitions, celebrations, learning programmes and community activities simultaneously.

Importantly, all of this is being done through the lens of sustainability. The proposals include the introduction of modern low-carbon services, air source heat pumps, improved energy efficiency measures and a move away from fossil fuels, helping ensure Victoria Baths can play its part in Manchester’s journey towards a net-zero future.

Victoria Baths has already survived 120 extraordinary years. With care, investment and determination, I truly believe it can continue inspiring people for at least the next 120 years.

So tonight, let us celebrate the past. Let us celebrate the people who saved this building. The people who are still fighting to save this building.

And let us look forward with confidence and optimism to everything Victoria Baths can become.

Happy 120th Birthday, Victoria Baths.