Spa Pump Room, Hockley

Spa Pump Room, Hockley

The Spa Pump Room is a Victorian building in Hockley, Essex. It was built to the designs of James Lockyer in 1842 after a medicinal spring was discovered on the site four years earlier. The building closed as a pump room in 1857 and was used for many things, including a Baptist chapel, a billiard hall, and a clothing factory; it is now in private ownership. It was designated as a Grade II listed building in 1972.[1]

History

Robert Clay and his wife, an ageing couple from Cheltenham, retired to Hockley in Essex, in 1838. The Clays rented a cottage and dug a water well in its gardens. Mrs Clay, a chronic asthmatic, found relief in drinking the waters the well contained and declared it medicinal; they renamed their cottage Hockley Spa Lodge. In order to capitalise on their discovery, and to emulate the kind of success' with the spas at Bath and Royal Tunbridge Wells, they were advised by a local businessman, William Summersall, who later managed the spa, to build a pumping room in order to access larger amounts of water to administer to the wider public.[2] The Clays appointed the architect James Lockyer to design a pumping room which was completed in 1842.[1] The business flourished but by 1857 the spa had fallen out of favour and the Pump Room was used as a Baptist Chapel. By 1880 the spa had been abandoned completeley and the Pump Room became a billiard hall. From 1947 the building was used as a clothing factory[3] before it fell into private ownership.[4] It was designated as a Grade II listed building in 1972.[1]

Associated buildings

There is a c. 20 factory that extends to the rear of the Pump Room and a c. 19, red brick house adjoining to the eastern side.[1] The nearby Spa Hotel, which is located on the junction of Southend Road, Main Road and Spa Road, was used as a hotel for visitors coming to the spa to use its medicinal waters.[5] It was also designed by Lockyer and was opened simultaneously with the Pump Room in 1842.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Historic England, "Hockley Spa Rooms (1112670)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 2 October 2017
  2. ↑ Hembry, pp. 95–96.
  3. ↑ Hembry, p. 96.
  4. 1 2 Beattie and Pevsner, pp. 494–495.
  5. ↑ Hockley Parish Plan 2007, Rochford District Council, p.4, accessed 1 October 2017.

Sources

  • Hembry, Phillis, May (1997). British Spas from 1815 to the Present: A Social History. London: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. ISBN 978-1-6114-7153-3.
  • Pevsner, Nikolaus; Beattie, James (2007). The Buildings of England: Essex. London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-3001-1614-4.

Coordinates: 51°36′08″N 0°39′28″E / 51.60217°N 0.65786°E / 51.60217; 0.65786


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