Life-Size Cardboard Historic Spa Pump Room Built for Scarborough Seafest

A life-size cardboard reconstruction of Scarborough's historic Victorian Spa Pump room will be unveiled at this weekend's Seafest event, complete with guided tours and a chance to smell the famous spa waters.

A life-size cardboard reconstruction of the historic Victorian Spa Pump room is set to be a major attraction at this weekend’s Scarborough Seafest event. The ambitious project, spearheaded by the Animated Objects Theatre Company, aims to transport visitors back to the late nineteenth century to experience one of the town's lost architectural marvels.

The creation of the installation has been a massive collaborative effort, drawing on the artistic talents of residents and students from across the town. Lee Threadgold from the Animated Objects Theatre Company explained the scale of the community involvement and said:

"We're working on the life size model of the Victorian pump room from the late 1800s, which we're building entirely out of cardboard. We've had hundreds of makers from the local community and schools involved in decorating beautiful cardboard Victorian tiles for it and helping us build the door frames and all of the various other bits of iron work and things like that that are all being recreated in cardboard. We have a giant lantern of Thomasine Fara, who is the lady who first discovered the spa waters here. She's going to be on display outside the spa, illuminated each evening for people to have a look at, and we are working on our LEGO model of the spa as well, which will be on display this weekend."

To ensure the cardboard replica is as authentic as possible, the creative team undertook extensive research into the town's heritage. They studied historical documents and examined similar Victorian architecture to accurately capture the essence of the original building.

Detailing the meticulous research process and what visitors can expect to experience, Mr Threadgold said:

"We have looked at some of the engineer scans, we have looked at the original architect's technical drawings of it. We have analyzed tiles and iron work and other Victorian details from buildings around the country that were made the same year as the pump room. So, we've got all of those details recreated as accurately as we can in cardboard and what that will mean is that people will be able to come in. They'll see what the size and the space was like, what the kind of atmosphere of that that really remarkable space was like as well, and I'll be doing guided tours talking through the history of it, looking at what made the water so special here and the chemical composition of them. And we have a sample of the spa water so people can get a little whiff of what some of those waters might have smelt like at the time."

The original pump room has a tragic history, having been lost to the elements over the decades. Once a bustling hub for health tourism, changing habits eventually led to the abandonment and subsequent deterioration of the subterranean space.

Discussing the background of the original site, Mr Threadgold added:

"It's an architectural wonder, the pump room itself. Obviously, by modern standards, it would be classified as being underground, because it's beneath where the car park is at the Spa now, which sadly fell into disuse in 1939 just simply because people were not really that interested in taking the waters anymore. So it got sealed over, and then sadly the sea water managed to get in and it's it's it's ruined the space, I suppose would be the the most tactful way of putting it."

Alongside the cardboard pump room, the Scarborough Seafest event will feature a variety of other historical and creative attractions to mark the town's heritage. These activities will be hosted indoors, providing an immersive historical experience for all ages.

Outlining the other free activities available to the public at the event, Lee Threadgold said:

"Our celebration Scarborough 400s up in the ocean room. We've got the pump room there. We've got a giant Victorian bather that one of our artists is going to be working on that will be part of moonlight on the lake later in the year, and she's absolutely huge. We have Victorian games, green screen activities. There's a LEGO area where people can have a go at building their own technical a version of some of Scarborough's buildings and obviously the LEGO model and all of the pump room and everything will be on display and it's all free admission for the public."