Tepid Baths, Indoor swimming pool in central Auckland, New Zealand
Tepid Baths is a historic indoor swimming facility in central Auckland, New Zealand, featuring several pools for leisure and lap swimming alongside a fitness center and sauna. The building dates from the early 20th century and holds a Category 2 historic place listing with Heritage New Zealand.
The facility opened in 1914, with its pools originally heated using water from a nearby tramway power station. Over the following decades the heating system was replaced and the building went through several rounds of renovation to keep it in use.
The name "Tepid Baths" refers to the lukewarm water temperature that was chosen to make swimming accessible to a wide range of people, including those unused to heated pools. Today the building continues to draw school groups and regular swimmers side by side, giving it an ordinary, neighborhood feel in the middle of the city.
The building sits in central Auckland and is easy to reach on foot from the main train station and shopping streets. The entrance opens directly onto the street, so there is no need to navigate a complex approach.
When the baths opened in 1914, the pools were filled with heated saltwater rather than fresh water, which was unusual for a public facility of this kind in New Zealand at the time. This made it one of the first places in the country where temperature-controlled saltwater was used for public swimming.
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