Wrexham County Borough 42 - Wrexham / Hyperbolic, Parabolic and Diabolic / A saddle roof that looks like a certain brand of crisp

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What do you have to do to get something listed ? I wondered as I stood in the early morning sunshine . I was on my way for a swim before it got too hot to bother . Another day of Lockdown in Wales. Another day of freedom in England . The numbers of infections of Covid have dropped over the last few days . It is hard to know what that means anymore. I stood for a while and I was taken back to the summer of 1969. It wasn't one of those exceptionally hot summers. Nor as far as I can recall a particularly cold one . It was a non- descript sort of summer in a way. Livened by the building of the swimming baths I was standing outside and looking up at .

A saddle roof . That was one name for the roof . Hyperbolic and Parabolic . That is the technical term . You do know what I am talking about even though the shape is quite unique in the building world . There are only a handful of hyperbolic parabolic rooves in the world and I was standing gazing up at one of them . So what is a saddle roof ? Think of a well known crisp on sale in the UK. It stacks and sits inside a cylindrical tube . What I am looking at is a modernist masterpiece , quite complex which failed to make a listing by Cadw . They described it as unique but not unique enough . How many do they want ? There are no other in Wales . Very few in the rest of the UK . A petrol station now closed in the North at Markham Moor which is listed and Grade 2 at that . The swimming baths are an innovative design but to fair was dislked due its high cost of construction, its drain on the rate payers of the town . I remembered it being built . It replaced the old Victorian Tuttle Street Baths which had been heated by the towns rubbish incinerators . It rose out of ashes and grew organically in Bod Hyfryd . Bod Hyfryd - a pleasant place . Wrexham had seen nothing like it nor seen anything like it since . Parabolic , hyperbolic and diabolic was one description thrown at it .

I loved it . It summed up modernity. It summed up the swinging sixties . It still had a hold on me . I was fascinated by its shape and design . The doubly curved roof resembles a saddle . Yes it cost a lot of money to renovate and it almost was demolished . I was so pleased it was saved and continues to make an eyecatching skyline feature to an otherwise boring old town.

I stood for a while looking up at the complete wall of glass from the floor to the pointy bit where the roof curves meet . They let in so much natural light to the swimming pool and make swimming a pleasure . At either end the roof line drops to the ground and ends a few feet off the ground . When it rains the rain runs down the roof without any guttering to take it away. Instead it is funnel to the narrow ends of the roof line and the rain water turns into a waterfall falling into small ponds . Sadly full of debris today and in need of a good clean out . It is a controversial building , expensive to built , difficult to build and if it had not been for luck rather than good judgement it would not be here today .

The council were quoted 12 million pounds in the 1990's to replace the building with something a little less eyecatching . Cadw had just refused to recognise it as something worth preserving . Described as not nationally important , not historically important just a example of some post war building . It was not unique enough . I don't know who thought it had no merit . Standing in front of it the building still after 50 plus years mesmerises me . It looked as if the writing was on the wall and the building would go. Luckily it did not and I was fortunate to not only be able to stand and admire it , I could wish it well for another 50 years and enjoy my swim inside such an iconic building . How many get the chance to swim in a one off building ? Not many unless they come to Wrexham .

There is another example - a church in Blackheath London . In the USA Daton Arena in North Carolina , In Warsaw Orchota Railway station and in Canada the Scotia Bank in Calgary . So Wrexham was in good company .

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