The Moseley Road Baths team has secured full funding for Phase 2 restoration with £9.27m Heritage Fund grant
We’re absolutely delighted to share that the Phase 2 restoration of Moseley Road Baths is fully funded, following a £9,272,950 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, and with huge thanks to National Lottery players. The award completes a c.£16 million Phase 2 funding package that will see our beautiful Baths – one of only a handful of Grade II* listed swimming baths in the UK – reopen as a thriving community destination for swimming, health, wellbeing, culture and events.
The Heritage Fund grant joins major commitments from Birmingham City Council (£5.1 million towards Phase 2, part of a £10 million total commitment to the project), the West Midlands Combined Authority’s Public Sector Decarbonisation Fund (£970,455, supporting environmental performance through air source heat pumps), Garfield Weston Foundation (£350,000), the Architectural Heritage Fund (£250,000, supporting the creation of a wellbeing hub), the Edward Cadbury Trust (£50,000) and the Saintbury Trust (£12,000).
Phase 2 of the restoration will deliver:
- Full restoration of the iconic Gala Pool, including a restored mezzanine gallery and a new accessible ground-floor public viewing area
- Conversion of Pool 2 into a flexible event space
- Transformation of the Women’s Slipper Baths into a community health & wellbeing hub
- Reimagining of the Men’s Second Class Slipper Baths as a community gym
- Development of the boiler room into a flexible studio space
Phase 2 will follow directly on from Phase 1 works, which commenced in September 2025 and are focused on restoration of the roofs and making the buildings watertight, basement repairs, and the full restoration of Balsall Heath Library – including the addition of a new mezzanine level.
Alongside the Phase 2 capital works, the project will deliver a creative programme of public engagement. Hard hat tours, activities and events will run across Balsall Heath and the Library throughout construction and in the lead-up to the Baths’ reopening (currently anticipated to be in late 2028), alongside employment and training opportunities for local people. New accessibility features – Changing Places facilities (poolside and dryside), pool hoist and pod, lift and ramp access, and wheelchair-accessible changing and viewing areas – will mean Moseley Road Baths is, for the first time in its history, welcoming to all.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund supported Activity Plan also includes accessible programming designed to reach diverse audiences, including SEND, LGBTQ+, women-only swims, dementia-friendly swims, para and disability swimming lessons, and sensory swimming. Creative interpretation, onsite and online, will share the stories of Moseley Road Baths and Balsall Heath. The project will create new jobs, apprenticeships and volunteering opportunities – the first of which to go live will be recruitment for Moseley Road Baths CIO’s first ever CEO.
The Heritage Fund’s grant is one of the most significant heritage awards announced this year, and reflects the national importance of Moseley Road Baths — a building included on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register and on the World Monuments Watch in 2016.
