The Victorian public baths in east Belfast is to undergo a major refurb after Belfast City Council was awarded £5million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).

Templemore Baths will be restored, extended and fully reopened for use as a leisure and fitness facility.

Templemore Baths was the last in a series of public baths to be open throughout the city in the late 19th century. Workers were attracted to the area by the development of Harland and Wolff shipyard and the baths provided washing and sanitary facilities for them and their families.

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The baths are still in use today although 50% of the building is vacant and in disrepair. They are one of the few remaining links to a way of life now disappeared and of a time when inner-east Belfast was a thriving industrial community.

The new project will not only restore the original features of the building but make it commercially sustainable by providing the local community with a new 25-metre pool and state-of-the-art gym. The baths historic features will be interpreted, and the social heritage connected to the site will be explored and used to tell the story of the iconic local building.

The funding has been awarded through the Heritage Enterprise programme. It is designed to help when the cost of repairing an historic building is so high that redevelopment simply is not commercially viable.

Grants of £100,000 to £5m bridge the financial gap, funding the vital repairs and conservation work needed to convert underused, derelict and vacant buildings like Templemore Baths, into new, usable commercial spaces that can have a positive impact on local economies.

(CD/JP)