C O N T E X T 9 9 : M A Y 2 0 0 7 21 In 1978, a young student complained of a bad headache after a dip in the thermal waters at Bath, and within a few days had died of meningitis. The condition was caused by a tenacious amoeba called Nigleria Fowlerii that is well known to live near naturally occurring hot water springs around the world. Immediately all Bath’s famous immersion facilities were closed to the public, awaiting resolution of the problem. No one would have foreseen that it would have taken nearly 30 years and so many millions of pounds to reopen. It has been a classic story of many high-profile projects that never run quite according to script. To understand some of the issues, we need to go back to the time when Elizabeth I gave the waters to the people of Bath, following its wresting from the Church by her father a few decades previously. It then fell to the council to be the custodian on behalf of the citizens. In 1978 the council had to consider its options. The National Health Service had operated the spa facilities in the Hot Bath and elsewhere. This was falling in popularity and support, and the emphasis had been for the waters to be cooled to much lower temperatures for more popular leisure swimming. (Bath’s thermal waters emerge at around 45ºC and are cooled for spa bathing at 35ºC. Swimming at that temperature is dangerous, as the body’s natural cooling systems can not operate to reduce the additional body heat generated by the exercise, and so 28–30ºC is more common for that activity). The council members were reluctant to undertake the task themselves. Not only did they not have any expertise or history of running spas (throughout its history the spa operations had always been let to others to run and organise) but they were also averse to any risk in becoming a developer in that way. peter carey Rebuilding the spa in Bath When Bath’s thermal baths closed in 1978, no one foresaw that it would take nearly 30 years to re-open them. But the debate on new building in the centre of Bath has only just begun. The Bath Spa complex: a classic story of a high-profile project that did not run according to the script. A view of the site before 1998
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