TV star Griff Rhys Jones has urged the people of Carlisle to keep fighting for the city’s Turkish Baths.
Mr Rhys Jones is president of the Victorian Society, which has put the baths on its top 10 endangered buildings list for 2023.
Campaign group The Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths wants to keep the 113-year-old facility open but in October last year, Carlisle City Council agreed to mothball the building because it would cost around £26,500 a year to run.
The authority, which has since been replaced by Cumberland Council, said it was a difficult decision to make.
The Turkish Baths was scheduled to close early this year to allow demolition to take place of the next door 1970s Pools.
This will be included in the £20 million Station Gateway development, led by Cumbria County Council with support from the city council and other partners.
Mr Rhys Jones said: “Come on Carlisle, we will surely never see the likes of these fantastical interiors again.
“I salute the friends of these wonderful public baths. They have great plans to keep these amazing facilities open.
“They have been working hard with the newly formed Cumberland Council and we all really want them to succeed in keeping these highly decorative, relaxing, historic, and much loved baths in use. What incredible survivors. Public attractions of the future.”
The friends group wants to redevelop the building as a centre for health and wellbeing.
The Grade II listed Turkish Baths opened on the 20 September 1909 and were an integral part of Carlisle’s Victorian Public Baths. Records show that by 1957 over 100,000 people were using the baths. The lavishly-tiled Turkish Baths have original internal decorative tiling and glazed faience work by the renowned company Minton and Hollins of Stoke.
It is the only one of its type remaining in the North West.
