TODAY celebrates the one-year anniversary of the creation of the Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths, a group of strangers who came together to prevent the closure of a historic city attraction.
The campaign to save Carlisle's historic baths quickly gathered support with over 1,500 people following the Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths group within the first two weeks. A year on the campaign has almost 4,000 Facebook followers and has won the backing of Hunter Davies and Melvyn Bragg.
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The campaign started after it emerged that Carlisle City Council had commissioned a £10,000 feasibility study to examine alternative uses for the Grade II listed Baths on James Street.
When published in February the study proposed three options for the building, only one of which would keep the Turkish Baths in regular use.
In the meantime, the group has secured a grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund for their own feasibility study to look at preserving, restoring, and developing the 138-year-old building as a Centre for Health and Wellbeing.
In their heyday over 700 Turkish Baths were built across the UK, but today just twelve remain in operation.
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The group recognises the importance of putting the Baths on a long-term sustainable footing, and that doing that requires an expansion in the facilities on offer.
They plan to convert the 1920 Ladies Slipper baths into treatment rooms, while the upstairs waiting room would become a cafe/bar. The group also proposes to make the 20m pool and its changing rooms part of the Turkish Baths.
They would like to see the 10m pool partitioned to become a hydrotherapy pool as part of a new health and hydrotherapy centre on the site of the reception of the 1970s pool which is due for demolition; create an affordable, ecological community laundry offering a collection service, and relocate the Baths entrance to face the Station Gateway, and provide retail and restaurant units to let.
Chairperson Julie Minns said: "We started out simply wanting to save the Turkish Baths. But as our Vision has developed it's become more than that. Now it is about doing something positive for the city and the people who call Carlisle home."
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