With the increase in visitors following the opening of the Royal Baths in 1897, the 1842 Royal Pump Room could no longer accommodate the ever growing number of those who entered to drink from the worl famous Old Sulphur Well.
In September 1898 the Wells and Baths Committee recommended that adverts be paced for competitive designs for a new Royal Pump Room and by February 1899, the Corporation had received fifty designs, however the scheme foundered, following clear signs of disagreement, and the council decided to retain the existing building and extend it with an annexe. Finally, in 1912, plans designed by the Assistant Borough Engineer, Leonard Clarke, for an elegant light weight annexe of iron and glass to be built on the building’s Crown Place façade.
On 7 June 1913, the new annexe was formally opened by the Lord Mayor of London. In the event, the celebration proved to be the last great act of Victorian enterprise before the catastrophe of 1914 and the outbreak of war.