Plaque

Wash-house foundation stone

Erection date: 1892

Inscription

Westminster Public Baths and Wash-houses
The united parishes of St Margaret and St John the Evangelist adopted the Act of 1846 on the 8th Jany. 1847 and purchased this freehold site and erected the former building thereon. These baths and wash-houses were rebuilt AD 1892 upon an enlarged site.
Commissioners
Z. A. Berry
G. F. Danielli
James Gibson
H. O. Hamborg
W. L. Josephs
C. C. Piper
G. W. Tallents
F. J. Smith FRIBA - Architect
Stimpson & Co - Builders
J. C. F. Warrington Rogers - Clerk

This stone was laid by C. C. Piper

Seems likely that the F. J. Smith is the same architect as the one who built Caxton Hall with William Lee.

Andrew Behan has researched some of these names and points out that in the same year that these baths were rebuilt Commissioner Danielli was initiated into Commissioner Berry's Masonic Lodge, which had been co-founded by Commissioner Gibson, a few years previously.

Site: Wash-house foundation stone (1 memorial)

SW1, Great Smith Street, Westminster Archives Centre

The foundation stone is immediately to the right of the entrance.

The second floor bay window has some lovely relief work by Henry Poole showing swimmers - naked classical Greek young men. Ornamental Passions has good photos of these. Bas relief is not the ideal medium for showing bodies underwater.

In the 1990s the baths were replaced with the Westminster Archives Centre, a community centre and meeting space called the Abbey Centre. Historic England has an 1893 photograph.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
Wash-house foundation stone

Subjects commemorated i

William Lee and F. J. Smith

Architects active in 1882.

Read More

Stimpson & Co

Builders of the 1892 Westminster Public Baths and Wash-houses.  

Read More

Z. A. Berry

A Commissioner for the 1892 Westminster Public Baths and Wash-houses.  Geni h...

Read More

G. F. Danielli

A Commissioner for the 1892 Westminster Public Baths and Wash-houses. Andrew...

Read More

James Gibson

A Commissioner for the 1892 Westminster Public Baths and Wash-houses. Andrew...

Read More

Show all 10

This section lists the subjects who helped to create/erect the memorial on this page:
Wash-house foundation stone

Created by i

Charles Christmas Piper

A Commissioner for the 1892 Westminster Public Baths and Wash-houses.  1889 c...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

Octavia Hill - moved

Octavia Hill - moved

SW1, Millbank, 1

The plaque is located on the first floor of the building and is not on view to the general public. It appears to have been erected when t...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Hanover Chapel

Hanover Chapel

W1, Regent Street, Regent House

Built in 1893-8, Regent House was the first building in the replacement of the John Nash Regent Street, completed in 1927.  It is now (20...

1 subject commemorated
Samuel Morse

Samuel Morse

W1, Cleveland Street, 139

London County Council Samuel Morse, 1791 - 1872, American painter, and inventor of the Morse Code, lived here, 1812 - 1815.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Pageants Wharf fire station

Pageants Wharf fire station

SE16, Rotherhithe Street, 241, Old Fire Station Court

Pageant Wharf was the Thames waterfront from Lavender Lock to Pageant Stairs, basically this block. The 1887 Goad Insurance Plan of Londo...

2 subjects commemorated, 2 creators
Madame Tussaud's home

Madame Tussaud's home

NW8, Wellington Road, 24

English Heritage Madame Marie Tussaud, 1761 - 1850, artist in wax, lived here, 1838 - 1839.

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator

Previously viewed

S. V. Yates
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Elizabeth Rundle Charles

Elizabeth Rundle Charles

NW3, Oak Hill Way, Coombe Edge

Author of "Chronicles of the Schonberg-Cotta Family" Elizabeth Rundle Charles lived here 1874 - 1896

1 subject commemorated
S. J. Hewitt
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Gunmakers Arms

Gunmakers Arms

Former public house located at 438 Old Ford Road. Sylvia Pankhurst and her fellow suffragettes converted it into a day nursery and called it The Mothers Arms. The photograph does not portray the ac...

Building, Food & Drink

1 memorial