Ripon City Council has given its backing to plans designed to return Ripon’s iconic Spa Baths to its former Edwardian glory.

Ripon-based property investment and development company Sterne Properties Limited, is seeking planning approval from North Yorkshire Council for a mixed-used hospitality-led scheme that will see the restoration of the spa building, which includes ornate tiles, stained glass, period lighting and other features dating back to 1905, when it opened.

Many of the Grade II listed building’s decorative elements have not been seen for 88 years, as the spa was re-purposed in 1936 to accommodate a public swimming pool  and the addition of a pool hall saw the concealment of classical designs on windows, walls and ceilings.

Robert Sterne, pictured at the ornate main entrance to the Spa building

Director Robert Sterne, told the Stray Ferret:

“We are pleased to have the support of Ripon City Council, alongside that of Ripon Civic Society, for our proposed rejuvenation of Spa Baths.”

He added:

“Our objective, as a long-term investor in our home city, is  to deliver high quality developments that breathe new life into listed and historically-important buildings and bring redundant properties back into active use.

“This is achieved through a sensitive balance of residential and commercial space and the delivery of workable schemes that are financially viable and environmentally sustainable.”

Sterne’s plan includes four new-build apartments and the regenerated complex will provide public access to the Spa building along with a new pedestrian route into the adjacent Spa Gardens.

The city council voted in favour of the scheme at its full meeting  last week and its response to the proposed plans will be lodged with North Yorkshire Council planners.

Councillors Barbara Brodigan and Andrew Williams, who are members of the the North Yorkshire Council Skipton and Ripon Area Planning Committee, left the council chamber before the agenda item was considered by fellow councillors.

As required for all Ripon planning applications that include a new-build element, ground stability tests have taken place at the Park Street site and results from them will be supplied to the planning department.

Main image: An architect’s perspective of how the refurbished Spa building will look. Image: architecture:ab 

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Ripon Civic Society has welcomed plans to rejuvenate the city’s historic Spa Baths, which have fallen into disrepair since being closed two years ago.

Ripon-based investment and development company Sterne Properties Limited has proposed creating a hospitality-led development, which would see the spa building retained and refurbished.

The new-build element of the scheme would include four residential flats and a single-storey glazed extension, with a landscaped courtyard area linked to the adjacent Spa Gardens, providing a new public access to the parkland area.

This would replace the swimming pool building introduced before the Second World War, when the spa was converted into a public baths.

In response to the planning application, the civic society said:

“We give this scheme our strong support as being the best chance of allowing the site to survive.”

Mindful of the dilapidated and vandalised state of the grade two listed building, the society added:

“We would urge a speedy grant of planning permission and listed building consent to allow work to begin as soon as possible.”

Spa Baths closed two years ago and the building is in a state of disrepair.

Regarding the new-build element of the scheme,  the society said:

“Overall, it is a sensitive approach with historic structures cleansed of later inferior additions (including the 1936 pool) and with new-build done in an unashamedly modern but complementary style and materials.”

The society’s response, which can be seen along with other documents on the North Yorkshire Council planning portal, added:

“The society very much welcomes this scheme which proposes to conserve and provide new uses for an important historic building in the city.”

The civic society, which accepts the need for a residential element in the scheme to make the development viable, said it supports the application in principle, subject to clarification on a number of points of detail, largely relating to the retention of decorative features dating back to 1905 when the spa opened.

The main picture is an architectural perspective viewed from Park Street, which shows how the spa building will look after renovation. Image: Architecture:ab

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“The restoration will enable us to reveal classical features, such as stunning stained glass windows and ornate tiles dating back to the elegant Edwardian era, that have been covered up since 1936 when the site was remodelled to include a public swimming pool.

“These features are part of Ripon’s heritage and will be freely accessible for people to see in the pump room area, which will be open for the community to visit.”

The proposed north (top) and west elevations.

“We have carried out a great deal of research into the history of the spa to produce a scheme that re-establishes the seamless link that it previously had with Spa Gardens.

“The new buildings have been designed to be sympathetic to, and respectful of, their historic surroundings.”

Rhe distinctive terracota cladding.

Ripon-based development and investment company Sterne Properties has reaffirmed its commitment to regenerate the city’s historic Spa Baths.

Last June, the Stray Ferret revealed the company was acquiring the building from the then Harrogate Borough Council for an undisclosed sum.

But negotiations have taken longer than expected and Harrogate Borough Council was abolished at the end of last month and replaced by the new North Yorkshire Council.

Company director Robert Sterne said:

“This is a complicated site and obtaining planning for it will be a long process, but we remain 100 percent committed to our hospitality-based regeneration proposals.

“We look forward to presenting our proposals to Ripon City Council.”

In September 2021, the city council successfully applied to have the Edwardian baths building listed as an asset of community value by Harrogate Borough Council. But at last night’s full council meeting, members voted unanimously  to no longer pursue any future ambitions for its own development of the site.

With its track record of developing buildings for the city’s leisure, hospitality and retail sectors – including Curzon Cinema, Claro Lounge and Halls of Ripon – Sterne Properties feels well-equipped to take on the challenge of Spa Baths’ renaissance.

The company has had success in returning redundant properties, such as the former NatWest Bank building next to Ripon Town Hall and an empty furniture store on North Street, into destinations that add value to the city’s offer.

Read More:

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Decades before  Sylvia Grice MBE started teaching generations of Ripon children how to swim in the city’s Spa Baths, the lessons were more rudimentary.

Among the overgrown trees, grass and plants that crowd a bank-side section of the Ure, retired postman  John Heselton, has uncovered a rusty riverside relic.

The mystery object serves as a reminder of childhood experiences in Victorian and Edwardian times that would be frowned upon in today’s more safety-conscious society.

He pointed out:

“I discovered from a couple of people in their 90s, who were among Ripon’s first ‘wild’ swimmers, that their introduction to the waters of the Ure was literally a case of sink or swim.”

With the Skell, Laver and a canal adding to Ripon’s network of natural and man-made waterways, there has always been a need to teach children and adults a skill that could one day save their life or the lives of others.

John Heselton, with a black and white photograph of the pavilion, is pictured next to the pulley that was used as a safety device.

But pre-1936, when Ripon’s first public baths were opened, how did people learn their first strokes?

Mr Heselton, pointed out:

“For novice swimmers, a rope was wrapped around their waists before they took the plunge.

“If they showed any signs of getting into difficulties, the pulley that the rope was attached to, was wound back in by the adults on the bank who arranged and supervised the regular learn to swim and swimming sessions.”

He added:

“When I was a boy I learnt to swim, like thousands of other Ripon children, at Spa Baths, but it’s remarkable to think that generations before I was born, my ancestors are very likely to have been among those taught in this more basic way.”

Though the teaching method was basic, the same does not apply to the swimming pavilion itself, which was a grand purpose-built facility, as Mr Heselton discovered.

A detail in a wall (pictured below) first indicated to him that it was more than a boundary to a riverside residence.

He said:

“I have  past this structure on hundreds of occasions over half a century – first as a keen club runner and more recently while out walking my dog Ruby –  but it is only in the last couple of years that I realised it is a surviving remnant of a historically-significant facility.

“After rooting through the undergrowth, I saw that at ground level the wall includes a salt-glazed course of bricks, not there to let air in, but to drain water out, when the swimmers got out of the river to change back into their clothes.”

Like all good detectives, Mr Heselton looked for further evidence on the other side of the wall and the pulley system provided another vital clue about the previous use of this area, where the Ure broadens out to form a natural lido.

The ‘sink or swim’ childhood experience was confirmed by local people he had come to know during the 20 years that he served as a postman in Ripon.

Now, the missing pieces of the jigsaw have been put into place in a fascinating compilation of facts and photographs that the history and nature lover has painstakingly assembled.

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Stray Views is a weekly column giving you the chance to have your say on issues affecting the Harrogate district. It is an opinion column and does not reflect the views of the Stray Ferret. Send your views to letters@thestrayferret.co.uk.

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Ripon Spa Baths refurbishment welcomed

Brilliant news that Spa Baths will be refurbished and protected in future. 

A large part of my childhood too, as with the developer and his family. I’d love to see it when it’s back to its former glory.

Trish Baker, Ripon

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