What's Your Jacobs Wells Story?
Jacob Wells Baths, a Grade II Listed building holds within its walls a wealth of of architectural and social heritage - from its time as a public swimming baths to its 30 year history as a dance hub. A grassroots campaign is underway to bring back the building into the community.
From its time as a swimming pool, to being a multi-use arts hub, we are exploring and sharing the stories of the building over the years. Here, Trinity’s Heritage & Engagement Curator Dr Edson Burton tells us about his Jacobs Wells Baths’ Story...
"It was 2017 and I was coming to the end of my residency at Pervasive Media Studio, where I was working on a project called The Last Blues Song Of A Lost Astronaut.
I was looking for a space that had depth and height because I wanted to test the four aspects of what was going to be quite a tech-heavy, immersive theatre experience.
We looked at multiple venues across the city but nothing quite fitted. In particular, sight lines were an issue as we were looking to project at scale and most spaces just weren’t big enough for the concept of these 'four areas' that we could project onto and perform within.
I got in touch with Artspace Lifespace who were meanwhile tenants at the time of Jacobs Wells Baths at the time. We went down to look at the space and it was absolutely perfect.
There are very few spaces that have that much height and width. This means then that, in terms of creating an immersive show, it is a fantastic space for this type of performance, especially as it has one of the best sprung floors around.
I know other companies like Racous have also used the space brilliantly - it'd be great for the city to keep that creative spirit alive."
Get Involved
Click here to sign the Hotwells and Cliftonwood petition
Share your JWB story on social meda using #SaveJWB or send it to sarah@trinitybristol.org.uk
Further reading
Read more from Dr Katie McClymont from her talk about resusing heritage spaces
Read more about how the community is fighting for Jacob Wells here.
