This pub is part of the Captain Cook Square development, named after Middlesbrough’s most famous son. The pub takes its name from Cook’s flagship, Resolution. Between July 1772 and July 1775, Cook undertook an even more ambitious voyage. He was given two ships, with the Resolution as his flagship. He successfully completed the first west-east circumnavigation in high latitudes, chartered Tonga and Easter Island, discovered New Caledonia in the Pacific, the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia in the Atlantic.
Prints and text about The Resolution.
The text reads: This Lloyds No.1 Bar – here in Captain Cook Square – takes its name from the ship on which the famous navigator and explorer sailed on his second and third great voyages of discovery. HMS Resolution, like its companion ship HMS Adventure, was a refitted northern collier.
Cook’s second voyage was a commission to “complete the discovery of the Southern Hemisphere”. He had with him a copy of William Harrison’s Chronometer, an extremely accurate instrument, so that he could determine his location and map his journey precisely.
Circumnavigating the globe in southern latitudes, Cook spent three years charting the positions of island groups in the southern Pacific, and reached further south than any other sailor before him, around 100 miles north of Antarctica. His ships returned in 1775.
Prints and text about Captain Cook.
The text reads: The famous explorer and navigator James Cook was born in 1728, the son of a farm labourer in the village of Marton, Now part of Middlesbrough. The family later moved near Great Ayton, where James attended school and showed a gist for mathematics.
After a time working for his father, James left to work in a shop in the fishing village Staithes, where he learnt to handle small boats. At 18, he left for Whitby, to be apprentice to Quaker ship worker John Walker, and sail in the Whitby coal-carrying ‘cat’, Freelove.
Cook became a First Mate by the age of 24, and was soon offered a captaincy. However, he volunteered for the Royal Navy, rising to his first command in 1757. He took part in the siege of Quebec, and did surveying and observation work, before undertaking his great voyages of discovery.
Prints of Captain Cook and Omai - who sailed with Cook from Tahiti and made a big impression on London Society.
Prints relating to Captain Cook and his voyages.
Prints, photographs and text about the Corporations Baths.
The text reads: This Lloyds No.1 Bar occupies the site of the old Corporation Baths, which were built in 1884 over a brick-pond. Boilers from an old ferry-boat were used for heating. As well as the swimming bath, there were slipper baths and dressing boxes (changing cubicles).
The water was changed on Mondays and Thursdays, when admission cost sixpence (2 1/2p). On other days it was reduced. The Baths were extended in 1901, and thirty or so years later, were incorporated into the new Central Swimming Baths at a cost of £45,000.
The Baths were closed in 1988, and were demolished ten years later.
Jack Hatfield was the son of the Baths Superintendent. Born in 1893, Jack became champion of England at 18. He represented his country at four Olympic Games, winning two silver medals, and one bronze.
Left: top, the original swimming bath, 1933
Below, the Turkish bath.
Centre: Jack Hatfield
Above: The Corporation Baths in Newport Crescent.
External photograph of the building – main entrance.
If you have information on the history of this pub, then we’d like you to share it with us. Please e-mail all information to: pubhistories@jdwetherspoon.co.uk