Te Aro Baths

“In Britain, on the Continent, in Australia, and indeed the world over, sea bathing is considered a healthful luxury” wrote the Wellington Independent in December 1858, but “… Where are our baths?”

Although David Wilkinson, who had tea gardens and a plant nursery at Oriental Bay had proposed to build baths in 1855, it would not be until 1864 that Wellington’s residents could “invigorate their health in the briny deep.”

In August that year Messrs Standwell and Downes proposed a ‘sea bathing establishment … at the first bend on to the road to Wilkinson’s Tea Gardens’. With £150 of the £1,000 cost being provided by the Provincial Government, tenders were called for a building containing ‘dressing rooms, fresh water shower baths and every other convenience.’

Opening on 1 December, the Wellington Sea Bathing Establishment was described in detail in the Wellington Independent. The baths featured 24 dressing rooms and two rooms fitted with showers, and a refreshment room provided visitors with ‘eatables and potables of every description.’ An annual subscription was two guineas, or a single visit sixpence (one shilling if you wanted a towel). Tuesdays and Fridays the baths were set aside for woman only.

The baths changed hands in 1868 and the new proprietor, R P Collins, reopened as the Wellington Public Baths, carrying out repairs and dropping the price from one shilling to sixpence, ‘so as to meet the times.’ (New Zealand was in recession from the late 1860s until the mid-1890s). Further improvements were made in 1871 when the baths once again changed hands, this time to Henry Meech.

The baths would be managed by Henry, and following his death in 1885 his wife Mary, for the next 30 years. They prove very popular with Wellingtonians; the summer weather in 1875 caused the baths to be “thronged every morning”, and by 1877 demand led to them being enlarged.

Being on the shoreline close to the Council’s works  depot caused ongoing problems with pollution from the early 1880s. In 1882 Henry wrote to the Council complaining of the state of the rubbish depot. The water in the baths was “in a very filthy state” and many bathers refused to visit in disgust, or did not renew their season tickets. Things got worse following the opening of the first ‘Destructor’ in 1888, designed to burn the city’s waste. The “overflow of filth from the Destructor” was not managed and increased polluted in the harbour and the baths. Mrs Meech would go on to successfully sue the Council for the damage and loss of income caused.

The turn of the twentieth century marked the end for Meech’s baths. In the late 1890s the Harbour Board decided to set aside part of Clyde Quay for a small harbour for recreational boats, and the City Council planned reclamation work to widen Clyde Quay. The Council also wanted build public baths in the area. In 1895 they had got approval from the Government Premier to erect public baths on the Thorndon Esplanade and at Oriental Parade. While the Charlesworth designed baths had been built and opened Thorndon in March 1897, construction of baths at Oriental Bay to the same design was delayed due to cost.

In 1898 the Wellington City Reclamation and Baths Act was passed allowing all this work to begin. The Clyde Quay widening work necessitated the demolition of the old baths, and by April 1901 they were only a memory to the many Wellingtonians who used to take their morning and evening dips within its palisades. Council selected a site further down Oriental Parade for the new baths and plans by the City Engineer, Richard Rounthwaite, were completed.

The new baths were opened to the public on Saturday 14 December 1901. A carnival was held, arranged by the Swifts Amateur Swimming Club. Attendees were entertained by Minifie’s String Band while they enjoyed a programme of races in the new pool. The new baths were much larger than the previous building, with a pool for men (including a beginners area) and one for women. As well as 73 dressing rooms there were also rooms for the onsite caretaker.

The baths would remain in use up until they were replaced by the Freyberg Pool, in 1963.