1900s swimming pool and former gymnasium, The Walden School (EHER 81129)

A swimming pool and adjoining gymnasium (later used as a drama studio) at The Walden School (EHER 81116). The pool was designed by Edward Burgess, built in 1902 to mark the centenary, and the roof was refitted in 2000. The complex of buildings also includes boys' and girls' changing rooms.

June 2023. Heritage assessment. A swimming pool and gymnasium (later used as a drama studio), designed by Burgess at The Walden School (EHER 81116). The buildings were constructed using funding from a 1902 centenary appeal by the school’s Old Scholars’ Association. The swimming pool and former gymnasium form a contiguous structure. The swimming pool building is a single storey brick-built structure with a pitched plain tiled roof. A central glazed roof light runs its length. The roof was re-fitted in 2000. The changing rooms at the West end of the baths extend into the first floor of the drama studio which was partitioned when use changed from gymnasium to drama in 1984. This change of use was as a result of the construction of a new sports hall (see EHER 81130). The drama studio comprises a two-storey space above the boys’ changing rooms, accessed from stairs at the SW corner of the partitioned ground floor. It has a dual pitched roof covered with plain clay tiles. The external walls are of solid brick construction with mock Tudor panelling to the gables at high level on the front and rear elevations. The ground floor is of concrete with a suspended timber first floor, a timber external staircase provides access to the first floor along with an internal timber staircase. To the South of the swimming pool lie the girls’ changing rooms, designed by Paul Mauger (1955), comprising a single storey extension with portico and seating area facing onto the playing fields to the South. <1>