22 C O N T E X T 9 9 : M A Y 2 0 0 7 Meanwhile that quarter of the city was starting to suffer from neglect as its main attraction had gone, despite being a stone’s throw from the heart of the city, its retail area and its main tourist attractions. The council’s reluctance had become the spur in 1987 to try to encourage private finance to invest in the area. At that time one of the other historic pools, having suffered from fire, was offered for redevelopment for retail, to stimulate access and pick up on the hoped-for renewed interest in a spa. Thus the north-west end of Bath Street became, briefly, the Colonnades shopping centre. Meanwhile, the council undertook the cleaning and repairing of the increasingly shabby abandoned historic buildings. It was intended to encourage private investors to come forward to take on the development knowing that the basic repairs had been done. This is when Donald Insall Associates first became involved. Our task was to undertake emergency repairs; eradicate wet and dry rot; stabilise the structures; and clean and consolidate the stonework, then blackened with soot and carbonation. In addition, the pitched roofs to the Hot Bath (dry rot had decimated the 20th century felted flat roofs) were restored, and the urns and swag panels to the Cross Bath replaced. Both had been removed when that building had been roofed over in the late 19th century when it became a swimming pool. This project won a Europa Nostra Award, but still no suitable developer came forward with a satisfactory scheme that made economic sense. It took the brave and visionary Paul Simons, ex-SPAB Lethaby Scholar, then the city’s director of leisure and tourism, to champion the cause. He challenged the reluctant council: if not them, then who? If not now, then when? The catalyst was the possibility of a 50 per cent Millennium Lottery grant. The many and various setbacks that attended the realisation of the scheme, much hyped by the press and used for local political point-scoring ever since, is not any part of this discussion. It should not overshadow the considerable achievement of those who backed the scheme from the start, and had the courage and tenacity to see it through. With Simons as the champion, doggedly cajoling and persuading the wavering councillors to back the scheme, the initial rounds of discussion and design had to be favourable and win the various stages for the Lottery grant. An open architectural competition was held, won convincingly by Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, with ourselves as team members responsible for conservation aspects. This choice appeared to some as controversial, as Grimshaw had little direct experience of sensitive city infill sites, let alone within a GeorgianWorld Heritage city.Nevertheless there was an overriding consideration: the insistence of the Millennium Commission that this was to be a forward-looking design to conform with the Millennium Fund’s criteria. That is, it was emphatically not a Heritage Lottery bid. The development of the Cross Bath from 1798 to 2006 The development of the Hot Bath from 1776 to 2006
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