Decaying Victorian spa up for sale... but with little scope for alterations

SOUTH YORKSHIRE’S only remaining Victorian spa still set in its original grounds has been put up for sale.

Grade II-listed Birley Spa Bath House, off Birley Spa Lane, Hackenthorpe, was once a thriving and popular place for people to bathe.

Sheffield City Council was given a Heritage Lottery grant of £500,000 in 1998 and spent the cash renovating the bathhouse to ‘restore it to its original glory’.

It won an award for the renovation in 2002, before it was eventually neglected and left to decay once again.

Valerie Bayliss, of The Victorian Society in South Yorkshire, said she doubts the spa will even be compatible for another use.

She said: “It was listed Grade II in 1972, so regarded as of sufficient historical and architectural importance to be protected and retained as far as possible.

“From what I know of it I doubt there’s a lot of scope for alternative uses compatible with the listing.

“It’s built into a hillside and the interior is mainly the plunge pool. It was housing at some time but doesn’t look a good candidate for modern conversion – but I could be wrong.”

Sheffield historian TL Platts wrote a book on the history of the spa in which he painted a picture of the site during its heyday in the 1920s and 30s as a ‘very popular’ play area for children.