Just a few days at home is enough to get my batteries recharged and find some eclectic Manchester inspiration for our fourth and final TV episode of Half Built House. I saw a tweet about an event at the incredible Victoria Baths, a restoration work-in-progress of what was described as the finest municipal bathing facilities in the country… back in 1906 🙂 The Vintage Home Fair sounded just perfect for a little Sunday afternoon potter and I’m a little ashamed to say I’d never seen the inside of this very famous local building before.
The interior, period features and sheer scale of the baths is stunning, amazing to think that pulling it down was even considered. It’s an ideal setting for the vintage furniture, decor and homewards on sale.
Loved the saucy cowgirl print on the bar stools and the wooden printing blocks… at £2 each I bought HBH, of course!
Somebody definitely got a good deal on green tiles when these walls were designed and specified….
The baths were state of the art at the time, costing the princely and budget busting sum of £59,000 to build – truly deserving of the name ‘water palace’. In places it’s slightly battered around the edges but that only adds to it’s charm and the team there are hard at work raising funds to restore and fix.
So what did I find?
Tucked away in a corner I found the quite beautiful Rose & Lee Vintage Living stall, abundant with sparkling crystal filled with heavenly scented candles (I’m a sucker for them!), homemade perfumed soaps and quirky, hand-finished Best of British interior pieces. I KNEW there was a reason my inner interiors angel was whispering in my ear that I shouldn’t miss the afternoon’s event.
I can see this event becoming a regular Moregeous outing 🙂
Wow, what a fabulous building! I thought I’d seen most things, but a tiled bannister is a first for me. Love it.
amazing decor – and no I haven’t seen a tiled bannister either
Lovely photos – I especially like the little lady who appears to have a little compact that she’s just produced from her handbag!!
I have some more pics of the building that include details of the mosaic floor and stained glass windows if anybody fancies a peep: http://traceycartledge.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/victoria-baths/
The interior, period features and sheer scale of the baths was stunning, amazing to think that pulling them down was even considered. It was an ideal setting for the vintage furniture, decor and homewards on sale.
Reblogged this on Stephanie Parker Pages.
Great blog!
I’m following!!!