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176
THE FOLLOWING REPORTS HAVE BEEN MADE
BY THE COMMISSIONERS OF
BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES FOR THIS PARISH.
Report of the Commissioners of Public
Baths and Wash-houses of Camberwell.
We, the Commissioners, beg to report that
the Vestry having deferred its decision in reference to the
proposition as to the Birkbeck site until negotiations had
been entered into with the proprietor of the Victoria
Baths, Martin's Road, Peckham, steps were at once taken
to ascertain whether that establishment could be obtained
for the purposes of Public Baths and Wash-houses, and at
what cost.
Having found that Mr. Higgs, the proprietor, was
willing to dispose of the baths for £13,500, we personally
surveyed the buildings and the vacant ground, together
with the approaches from the High Street and Sumner
Road.
The Victoria Baths consist of a 1st class swimming
bath 100 feet by 3G feet, with 79 dressing boxes ; a 2nd
class swimming bath, 125 feet by 40 feet with 130 recesses;
but these are without the privacy of doors or curtains
The 1st class bath is used largely by swimming clubs.
Of private baths there are 30, all of one class, and four
of these are set apart for women, but the fact that they are
approached through the same waiting room as the other 26,
that the passage to the 26 passes between the four bath