By 1893 more space was again needed. Andrew Myles was employed as architect (Burnet was 79 by this time) to add billiard and card rooms. This extension added another storey accessed by a grand staircase, which in turn led to a junior billiard room (now the reading room), senior billiard room, card room and other administrative spaces, on the first floor. Myles extended the façade up to form an elegant space with exposed roof trusses and glazing at the apex and added a five windowed loggia above the entrance.
The Third Extension
By now, Burnet's simple single storey building must have looked strangely out of sorts, with a two-storey extension attached to the end of it.
In 1902 a further increase in membership convinced the Club that a further extension was necessary. Thus order was restored, in some form at least, by the addition of a storey to the street frontage of Burnet's original building. This did not extend the pool hall itself, but simply the bank of rooms which lay between the pool hall and the street.
For this purpose the Club engaged architect number four, by the name of Benjamin Conner, who extended the front wall of the original building directly upwards to create a new larger billiard hall and dressing room, now used as a gym – lit by a regular rhythm of single windows. Again exposed timber roof trusses and partial roof glazing are used to good effect in these spaces
In this way, over four phases and a period of thirty years, the Arlington Baths Club grew by a process of accretion. The result, perhaps surprisingly, is not unpleasant. In fact its haphazard eclecticism gives it a strangely modern, or, rather, post modern, appeal.
All four phases speak with their own voices, but the result is more of a conversation than an argument. Burnet’s original building can still be seen and appreciated; its companions – with the exception of the entrance bay – do treat it with the deference it is due. The subsequent architects did generally take sufficient notice of what was already there to ensure continuity in what followed this is particularly true of the combination of simple well proportioned spaces, exposed roof trusses and excellent levels of daylighting which are something of a standard throughout the building.
Refurbishment
The building was partially refurbished with a grant from the National Lottery Fund in 2000.
