Arlington Baths Club

Arlington Baths Club was built during 1870–1871 and is a fine example of Victorian Italianate Architecture. It opened on 1 August 1871 as the Arlington Swimming Club. Along with bicycling and tennis clubs it formed part of that developing interest prevalent at the time of extending a general state of economic health outwards towards a complementary form of physical well being.

The Club was built in and formed part of the Charing Cross area created as a vital node in the westward development of the city. Built largely in the traditional tenement idiom, albeit with some extraordinary flourishes (the famous Charing Cross Mansions are just down the road), this area quickly attracted an important concentration of the type of citizens of whom the membership of the Arlington Swimming Club was to be made up.

The Club was therefore created on the doorstep of its membership, the great majority of whom lived within easy walking distance. From this emerged the traditions of the Club. The membership appeared first thing in the morning before going to work and returned in the evening after work before going home in a regular twice daily ritual.

The Arlington was the first swimming club in Glasgow. A replica of Arlington Baths was built soon after in London, whither the drawings of the Arlington were spirited sometime towards the end of the 19th century, never to be seen again. This building was bombed during the Second World War and was never rebuilt. The building of the Arlington Baths coincided with the implementation of the first of the Public Health acts in 1870 and was considered by some to be the precursor to the growth of public bathing in the UK.

The idea however, was anything but new, and goes back to the Roman Baths – on a more modest scale naturally. The bather graduates unhurriedly through a series of rooms offering a choice of experiences from the tepid to the very hot emerging finally into the swimming pool. The experience is both physical and social, as the user moves leisurely from one temperature to the next so he also moves from one conversation to the next. The idea of a relaxed combination of physical exercise and sociability lies at the heart of what the founders of the Club set out to achieve, and it remains the dominant idea behind the Club to this day.

The building was originally designed by John Burnet, the father of the better known Sir John James Burnet, and for this reason usually known as Burnet Senior. Burnet seems to have been a reticent man, although a fine architect, and something of that combination of reticence and delicacy can be seen in his original design. This was for the part of the building containing the swimming pool, the Senior and Junior baths and the Senior and Junior changing rooms which now forms the northern part of the building.

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