The Pittville Pump Room was the last and largest of the spa

Spa

The term spa is associated with water treatment which is also known as balneotherapy. Spa towns or spa resorts typically offer various health treatments. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters goes back to prehistoric times. Such practices have been popular worldwide, but are...

 buildings to be built in Cheltenham

Cheltenham

Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...

.

The well from which the Pump Room's waters originate was first exploited by Henry Skillicorne around 1740, about 25 years after the waters were first discovered in 1716. After the visit to Cheltenham in 1788 of King George III, the town became increasingly fashionable. In the 1820s the local landowner Joseph Pitt determined to develop the northern part of the town as 'Pittville

Pittville

Pittville is a northern area of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, founded in the early 19th Century by Joseph Pitt. It contains Pittville park, with its two lakes, skatepark, tennis courts and Pump Room, Pittville School , the arts and media campus of the University of Gloucestershire, and some...

', of which the Pump Room and its spa were to form an important element as part of a pleasure garden.

The Pump Room was built by the architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

 John Forbes

John Forbes (architect)

John B. Forbes was an architect in Cheltenham.He designed the Pittville Pump Room for Joseph Pitt and St Paul's Church . In 1835 he was convicted of forgery, having attempted to get out of financial difficulties by fraud: a sentence of transportation was commuted to a short prison term, but his...

 between 1825 and 1830. It is a Grade I listed building standing at the northern end of Pittville Lawn with landscaped grounds running down to a lake. The building contains the original Pump, made of marble

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 and scagliola

Scagliola

Scagliola , is a technique for producing stucco columns, sculptures, and other architectural elements that resemble inlays in marble and semi-precious stones...

, to which the waters are today fed by electric pumping.

The building has a colonnade

Colonnade

In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building....

 of Ionic

Ionic order

The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...

 columns; the interior houses a ballroom on its ground floor. Further Ionic columns support a gallery under a dome from which music might be played; on upper floors there were a billiard room, library and reading room. Above the colonnade are three statues, by Lucius Gahagen, erected in 1827, of the goddess Hygieia

Hygieia

In Greek and Roman mythology, Hygieia , was a daughter of the god of medicine, Asclepius. She was the goddess/personification of health , cleanliness and sanitation. She also played an important part in her father's cult...

, Aesculapius and Hippocrates

Hippocrates

Hippocrates of Cos or Hippokrates of Kos was an ancient Greek physician of the Age of Pericles , and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine...

.

The Pump Room and its grounds were managed during the 19th century by a succession of lessees, who offered the typical fare of pleasure gardens including menageries, exhibitions and balloon ascents. However the concession did not prove lucrative. Eventually Pitt himself went bankrupt and in 1890 the Room and the grounds passed into the ownership of the town council

Town council

A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....

.

They are now owned by Cheltenham Borough Council, which has continued to use them for public events. The Pump Room is frequently used as a concert hall, especially during the Cheltenham Music Festival

Cheltenham Music Festival

The Cheltenham Music Festival is one of the oldest music festivals in Britain, held annually in Cheltenham in June/July since 1945. The festival is renowned for premieres of contemporary music, hosting over 250 music premieres as of July 2004....

. At one time the upper floor housed a Museum of Fashion.

Following elections in 2007 the incoming Council discussed the possibility of selling the Pump Room but after widespread protests this proposal was later dropped in favour of a limited privatization

Privatization

Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

which would retain the building's public use. .