Erection date: 1903
Passmore Edwards Library, Baths and Washhouse
a 'one-stop shop', opened in 1903 on the corner of Wells Way and Neate Street. Partly funded by Victorian philanthropist John Passmore Edwards, its aim was to improve the health and leisure of working people, at a time when many houses lacked bathrooms, clothes-washing facilities and books.
Bridge to Nowhere - Burgess Park Heritage Trail
www.friendsofburgesspark.org.uk
Site: Camberwell Library and Baths (4 memorials)
SE5, Wells Way
The library is the northern building, pools to the south. The Library plaque is below the bay window. The Baths plaque is on the white stone between the two entrances. They were laid on the same day.
The entrance to the library is around the northern corner, in what is now Burgess Park. The entrance to the Baths, on Wells Road, is delightfully ornamented with carvings by Gunthorpe and Horsman of mermaids in watery foliage clutching their tails, and faces of a boy and of a girl peering out from behind similar foliage, appropriately above the words 'Men' and 'Women'. The architects were Spalding & Cross but we don't know the sculptor.
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