heinekencarolinabrick

Dispensary and swimming baths, now health hydro. 1891 for the Great Western Railway Medical Fund and designed by J J Smith of Swindon. Built of red brick made by the GWR brickworks with wrought iron framing to the swimming bath roofs, made by the GWR Works, Welsh slate and glazed roofing. The building is a complete block with two storied facades to Faringdon Road and Milton Road and single storey ones to the swimming baths in Chester Street and the back lane. It is built in a restrained Queen Anne style. The main entrance was on Faringdon Road. It is eleven bays wide, 5 : 3 : 3, the centre three bays being set forward with the entrance which has panelled double doors with a rectangular light over and a Bath stone Tuscan surround with a broken pediment on brackets. The entrance originally had a cast iron and glass canopy inscribed SWIMMING BATHS with flanking iron railings. This was probably removed in WWII. This is flanked by cross-framed casement windows and has above it a 3-light one. All the other bays have cross-framed casements and all the windows have elliptical heads with keystones. The walling is s panelled and plastered with a continuous string at first floor level and there are four small pediments at eaves level over bays 2, 4, 7 and 10; that over the entrance bay (7) carries the date 1891. Tall chimney stacks arranged randomly. The Milton Road fa?ade is in similar style and is of sixteen bays, 9 : 7. Bays 2, 4, and 7 are framed and pedimented and have 3-light windows; the rest are 2-light as before. Doorway as before in bay 2, this carries the inscription WASHING & TURKISH BATHS. The right hand seven bays have no pediments. All windows are 2-light ones and there is a doorway in bay 1 as before. The back lane has panelled walling with 2-light windows as before. The Chester Road front has plain walling with buttresses. Continuous clerestorey lighting to the large swimming bath, top lighting to the changing rooms and two tall ventilators to the bath. Interior: The main entrance was the Faringdon Road one with the Dispensary to the left and the Swimming Baths to the right. This entrance is no longer used and the one formerly for the Washing and Turkish Baths in Milton Road is now the only entrance. This leads to a hall lined with yellow and red brick with a light wrought iron roof in five bays with glazing along the ridge. This was the Washing Baths. To the right are the Turkish Baths of 1904 which has a restroom with open king post roof and a surviving marble massage table. The facilities, although in the original spaces, are otherwise modern. Beyond the Washing Baths are the entrances to the Swimming Baths. The large bath has an arched roof with seven wrought iron trusses, the main members very similar to railway lines, which were designed by the GWR Drawing Office and manufactured by the Works. These were largely reconstructed in the 1980's, top and clerestorey lighting. Large arched window at the southern end with four lights and a semi-circular head in five sections. Coloured glass by T Rice of the Works. The northern end has three arches under the gallery and a large plain window above. The galleries and swimming baths are little changed, only the changing cubicles which lined the bath are gone. This was the men's bath (41.5m x 15.2m). The smaller women's bath (18.3m x 15.2m) is also largely intact with five similar ribs to the roof and another 4-light window etc. The rest of the building contains different offices and meeting rooms, which are largely changed and subdivided. Original surviving features include doors, staircases with iron balustrades, tiled corridors and more coloured glass by Rice in the windows looking into the lightwells. History: Erected in 1891 for the Great Western Railway as the GWR Medical Fund Dispensary and Swimming Baths. It was designed by a local architect J J Smith and was constructed from materials largely manufactured by the GWR Works. It was considered one of the most up-to-date facilities of its kind when it was opened and pre-dated Health Centres by some 50 years. On Nationalisation it passed to British Railways (Western Region) and then finally to Swindon Borough Council. It has been very little changed internally and the two Victorian swimming baths survive in almost original condition. LBS

Bar Code
000025155

Photo Call Number
PVLH.LAV.08.109

Date
1928-07-05

Title
La Venta Inn, Palos Verdes Estates, California

Description
Image shows interior view of the original dining room at La Venta Inn, located at 796 Via del Monte on lots 4, 5, and 6, block 1536. Visible is a rectangular wooden table with six side chairs resting on a carpeted floor beneath a vaulted arched ceiling. A door to the courtyard is visible in center, and three framed landscape paintings [and/or prints] are visible on the walls, with a single-armed, wrought-iron wall sconce at right. Two large floral arrangements are on the floor on either side of the table. The Inn, originally built as a club house (named "Clubhouse 764") to entertain realtors and prospective land owners, opened in the summer of 1923 and was the first permanent building constructed by the Palos Verdes Project. The name was soon changed to La Venta (meaning "The Sale" in Spanish) and the inn served as a sales office and architectural prototype for the peninsula. During the 1930s it became a weekend retreat for notable celebrities such as Charles Lindbergh, Erroll Flynn, Betty Grable, Bob Hope, Tyrone Power, Cary Grant, and Gloria Swanson. Briefly in 1942 the Inn became the central observation post of the coastal artillery. From 1944 to 1954 the property was the residence of Commander and Mrs. Stanley Schnetzler, and was re-established as an inn in 1955. On November 11, 1978, La Venta Inn became the first structure designated as an historical landmark by the Rancho de los Palos Verdes Historical Society. In 1992 the New York Food Company took over management of the property.

Architect
Davis, Francis Pierpont
Davis, Walter Swindell, 1887-
Olmsted Associates
Risley, Winchton Leamon

Builder
Shattuch Construction Co.
Lawyer, Jay
Lewis, Edward Gardner
Chaney, Charles H.
Lawyer, Donald K.

Date Built
1923

Subject
La Venta Inn (Palos Verdes Estates, Calif.)
Historic buildings--California--Palos Verdes Estates
Hotels--California, Southern
Interiors
Dining rooms

Photo Size
7.25 x 9.25 in.

Photo Format
photographic print (b/w)

Photo Source
Palos Verdes Homes Association

Image
000025155.jpg

Notes
PVH building permit #4.