page_title: Birmingham Baths Committee
section_title: Kent Street Baths
hierarchical_section_title: Birmingham Baths Committee / Baths owned by the committee / Kent Street Baths
caption_attribution_description: English: Created by Erebus555. This is Kent House, an empty building that once served as Birmingham's first public baths. This is the rebuilt facility.
context_page_description: The Birmingham Baths Committee was a Birmingham City Council-run organisation responsible for the provision and maintenance of public swimming and bathing facilities within the Birmingham boundaries in England. They constructed bathing facilities within Birmingham through funding by the council.
  In the planning procedures before the construction of a swimming bath, the department regularly partnered with the Free Libraries Committee to provide a new swimming bath alongside a new public library.
context_section_description: Kent Street Baths were the first baths opened by the committee. Construction began on 29 October 1849, with the laying of the first foundation stone. The baths were opened on 12 May 1851, however, the baths were not completed until 1852. The building was designed by D. R. Hill. The baths were close to the town centre and so received a good amount of water. However, this supply of water posed a problem to builders of the baths who found it difficult to prevent water from entering and flooding the construction site. The final cost of the baths was £23,000.
  The building contained first and second-class swimming baths for men, first and second-class baths for women, Turkish baths and laundry facilities. On 30 March 1914, a women's swimming baths and baths for women were opened in an adjoining building to the main building on Gooch Street.
  In 1930, the main buildings, with the exception of the women's bath on Gooch Street, were demolished and new facilities were built in a more modern style. The building contained a gala swimming bath, private baths, Turkish and Russian baths, offices and a repair and maintenance depot. It was opened on 29 May 1933. Designed by Hurley Robinson, it was of art deco architecture and remains today as Kent House.
  The bath suffered heavy damage during World War II with the loss of the gala bath to a heavy night raid on 3 December 1940. The surrounding buildings were also damaged from the blast. When the war finished, the committee repaired the baths.
  In September 2009, after lying empty for years, the baths were demolished by Benacre Property, the landowner, provoking a local outcry. Despite being Grade B locally listed, Birmingham City Council were unable to save the building and the site has now become a surface car park.
caption: Kent Street Baths, while an empty building under the name of Kent House.
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-LS2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Ver.1.0", "Image DateTime": "2007:06:06 11:13:11", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "418", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7060", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6547", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:06:06 11:13:11", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:06:06 11:13:11", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1280", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "960", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "6908", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "35", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}