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Poplar Baths London – Interior Photography

The refurbishment of Poplar Baths in London has recently been completed, and I was commissioned by the developer to photograph the interior and exterior before opening.

The listed building is a former public bath house that closed to the public in 1988 and has been redeveloped by Guildmore as a contemporary leisure centre with new homes to the rear.

I spent the entire day photographing Poplar Baths as it’s a big project and I wanted to shoot the exterior at dusk. The building had to be carefully restored in order to keep original features such as the grand arches over the indoor courts, tiling and windows. All of these features needed to be captured along with the new areas. I shot the project using a Sony A7RII, which is an extremely high resolution camera with excellent dynamic range – if you’re not a photography nerd feel free to skip this bit! I used my metabones adapter to allow use of my Canon lenses, in particular my 17mm tilt shift lens.

Poplar Baths London front exterior
Poplar Baths London lobby
Poplar Baths London courts

The arches are a particularly impressive feature and catch the afternoon sun due to the extensive glazing. Not a bad spot for a game of badminton.

Poplar Baths London arches

There is a 25 meter swimming pool with a smaller learner pool, and exposed steel beams above. I used my tilt shift lens to capture several photographs of the pool area from top to bottom, then stitched them together to create the following wide angle image.

Poplar Baths London swimming pool

The cafe has views over the main pool.

Poplar Baths London cafe
Poplar Baths London Richard Green statue
Poplar Baths London front sunset

The is also an outdoor, floodlit football pitch. Behind this are the new flats and great views over London and Canary Wharf.

Poplar Baths London stairs
Poplar Baths London football pitch
Poplar Baths London exterior view of Canary Wharf

I finished the shoot photographing the exterior of the building at dusk, with the passing traffic providing some nice light trails.

Poplar Baths London at night

You can click on the following link to learn more about my commercial photography work in London.

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