Public bathing has existed on this Swanston Street site since 1860, when Melbourne’s first City Baths provided a place for residents to wash and swim at a time when many homes had no private bathrooms.
The present Federation-era Melbourne City Baths building opened in 1904, replacing the original structure and reflecting the city’s growing civic ambition. Its red-brick arches, tiled halls and timber balconies overlook a grand indoor pool beneath vaulted ceilings.
This print captures the unmistakable atmosphere of this building for more than a century. The smell of chlorine in the air. Water echoing beneath the high ceiling. A swimmer’s goggles fogging as they slip into the pool.
Melbourne City Baths. A century of swimming in the heart of the city.
