Bathgate, 78 Mid Street, Bathgate Swimming Pool

Hopetoun Street

The principal thoroughfare through Bathgate which, joined to North Bridge Street, forms the boundary between 19th-century Bathgate and the older town to the north. Traces of former prosperity and gentility survive - No 52, with its recessed Doric porch, pilasters and fluted lintel, and the two fine pilastered doors of Whyte's Bar.

The junction with George Street, once graced by the cast-iron McLagan fountain (now re-erected in the Steelyard - its removal led to the nickname of the fountain-less cross), was greeted by a widening marked by a splendid curving corner Royal Bank of Scotland, with corniced windows, balustraded porch and great chimneystack; now truncated, all detail cloured off, leaving neutered windows gaping through chocolate-coloured harl. The New Royal Bar, at the junction of North Bridge Street, has a fine consoled and pedimented corner door. Bank of Scotland, c.1950, an elegant essay in late 1930s classical, has stair-tower at one end graced by flagpole, leading to two plain office storeys above.

Taken from "West Lothian: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Stuart Eydmann, Richard Jaques and Charles McKean, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

NS96NE 132 97717 68734

Bathgate Swimming Bath, Lanarkshire District. Spectators' galleries extend the full length of the pool on both sides. The dressing cubicles are arranged behind the glazed screen walls surrounding the swimming pool. Upon leaving the cubicles the bathers pass through a foot bath and shower baths before reaching the swimming pool. The pool surround is in pre-cast slabs tinted green, and the pool is constructed of reinforced concrete with white glazed linings. It measures 75 feet long by 33 feet wide (imperial); the depth of water can be varied, but will not exceed 4 feet (imperial) at the shallow end and 10 feet (imperial) at the deep end. The water circulates through a filtration plant and is completely cleansed every 4 hours. The building also includes a lounge, a committee room, an office, three slipper baths, lavatories, stores and a laundry. Opened 24th August , 1934. Cost: about £12,000, of which £8,250 was from the District Fund. Architects: Thomas Roberts and Son, Bathgate, in collaboration with the advisory branch of the Miners' Welfare Committee.

Miners' Welfare Committee, 1935.