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Victorian Turkish Baths

@victurk.bsky.social

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Malcolm Shifrin FRHistS—"Victorian Turkish Baths": 'a major act of historical recovery', 'readable', 'scholarly', 'something in it for everyone'. Profusely illustrated. worldcat.org/title/931082056. Complementary website http://www.victorianturkishbath.org

www.victorianturkishbath.org

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Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · Nov 30

See pages from the book: www.victorianturkishbath.org/EBOOK/ZBookD...
Read review extracts: www.victorianturkishbath.org/_EBOOK/5Revi...
What is a Victorian Turkish bath?
www.victorianturkishbath.org/_1INTRODUCTI...
Which baths are still open in the UK? www.victorianturkishbath.org/stillopen.htm

Book jacket shows the cooling-room of the Victorian Turkish baths at Harrogate, leading to the red curtained changing cubicles at the rear. On the right are four white sheet covered loungers; on the left are two more loungers separated by a fretwork panelled door leading to the hot rooms. The floor shows a repetitive design executed in mosaic tiles.

A reproduction of one of the pages from the book's illustrated glossary. The four images (accompanied by definitions) show: a fäience corbel in the Victorian-style Turkish baths at Carlisle; a patterend encaustic tile; a drawing of a Roman Doric column; and a section of a fäience tiled wall at Nevill's New Broad Street baths in London.

A reproduction of page 37 of the book, part of the chapter 'Urquhart, his committees, and their Turkish baths. The page includes two images: Mrs Butcher who "looked after Turkish Baths" in Winchester; 2 pages from a letter from Joseph Foden to John Johson about the Turkish Treaty, but with a sketch of the floor plan of his newly discovered Turkish bath in Stockport.

A flowchart showing the various paths which can be followed during a Victorian Turkish bath.

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Ideas Roadshow @ideasroadshow.bsky.social · 22h

🎲 💯 Let's play! A well-preserved boardgame with exquisite decorations!

As long as there’ve been human societies, games have played a significant role in how people interact w/ each other & how we live our lives.

🎬 A Cultural Exploration: ideasroadshow.com/chess/

🏺 #archaeology 🗃️ #arthistory

Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 1d

The Royal Game of Ur is the world’s oldest playable boardgame!

Played by Sumerians in ancient Mesopotamia about 4,500 years ago!

It is a two-player race game, the rules of which have been deciphered from a cuneiform tablet.

Game from the Royal Cemetery of Ur. 📷 British Museum

#Archaeology

British Museum photo showing a two-player board game with gaming counters known as the Royal Game of Ur. Dated c. 2,500 BC.

The game board is composed of a hollow box made of wood adorned with shell plaques. There is a drawer at one end for storing game pieces and dice. The top of the board is covered with twenty square-shaped off-white shell plaques, each bordered with dark-blue lapis lazuli. The shell squares are intricately decorated with blue inlaid patterns including dots inside circles and eye-shapes. Five squares are inlaid with flower-shaped rosettes with red limestone and blue lapis lazuli petals.

The game board is roughly rectangular in shape. Viewed from above in the photo, on the left side of the board is a block of 12 squares made up of 4 across by 3 down. On the right side of the board is a block of 6 squares made up of 2 across by 3 down. The two blocks are joined by two squares extending between the second square down on the end row of the left block and the second square down on the first row of the second block.

Dimensions H: 2.40 cm, L: 30.10 cm, W: 11 cm, (W 5.70 cm at narrowest part)

Beneath the board are 14 disc-shaped gaming counters. On the left are 7 white pieces, inlaid with 5 spots of blue lapis lazuli. On the right are 7 black pieces inlaid with five white spots.

Between the game pieces are three tetrahedron-shaped dice. L to R: Dark blue, brown, cream.

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Vanessa is the name of the Doctor! @hpsvanessa.bsky.social · 2d

one for the 🗃️feed (and seeing it reminded me to go take my vitamin D, lol) #histSTM

Dr Fabiola Creed @fabiolacreed.bsky.social · 2d

📙 Bluesky is the only platform where I haven’t circulated my book, as I’d recently joined and was waiting for the physical copy. So here it is (last book post, I promise) 📙

☀️ Sunbed in Britain: Tanning Culture from Fad to Fear is free to download via: dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781...

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roelsiebrand.bsky.social @roelsiebrand.bsky.social · 4d

Badhuis Diamantbuurt (1926) door architect Arend Jan Westerman in opdracht van de Gemeente Amsterdam.

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History Cafe ☕ Ottoman Heritage @ottomanhistory.bsky.social · 7d

🎨 Ottoman Ladies at a Turkish Bath, Istanbul, c. 1750

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Ideas Roadshow @ideasroadshow.bsky.social · 7d

♟️ 👨‍🎨 Marcel Duchamp was a notorious chess fanatic who repeatedly threatened to quit art for chess and coined the phrase:

💬 “While all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.”

Read more: ideasroadshow.substack.com/p/sofonisbas...

🗃️ #arthistory #chess #art #skystorians

The Chess Game by Duchamp, 1910, showing 2 men playing chess and 2 women, one have a coffee and the other lying on the grass.

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Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 7d

#onthisday, 3 Oct 1870, Dr Richard Barter died aged 68. An Irish physician, he built the 1st experimental Victorian #TurkishBaths at his St Ann's Hydro, realising David Urquhart's 30 yr dream of reintroducing the bath to the Br Isles. Barter associated with 9+ Tbs in Ireland, & 1 in London. 🗃️ #C19th

Dr Richard Barter, shortly before his death, standing next to the entrance to the latest of the Turkish baths built at St Ann's.

Portrait bust of Dr Barter by his namesake, the sculptor Richard Barter, who designed all of the doctor's Victorian Turkish baths in Ireland, as well as the one in London.

Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 7d

#onthisday, 3 October 1863, Dr Charles H Shepard added Victorian #TurkishBaths to his hydropathic 'sanitorium' at No.63 Columbia Street, #Brooklyn Heights, #NewYork &, in doing so, opened the first Turkish bath in the USA.
www.victorianturkishbath.org/_2HISTORY/At.... The baths closed 1913. 🗃️ #C19th

Engraving showing the front of the baths building. Originally the baths occupied only No. 63 Columbia Street (on the left of the building), but in 1867 a new Men's bath was opened next door at No. 65, while the original baths at No. 63 were converted for use by women.

Illustrated cover of a booklet, 'Rheumatism and its treatment by Turkish baths' published by Dr Shepard in 1892.

Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 8d

Is the site specially designed to look like a circuit board?

Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 9d

#onthisday, 1 October 1860, Dr Barter opened #TurkishBaths for the Working Classes at 43 Little Donegal St, #Belfast. They were actually 2nd Class baths attached to the 1st Class baths opening on 1 November, but entered from 112 Donegal St. www.victorianturkishbath.org/_6DIRECTORY/... +ALT 🗃️ #C19th

Advertisement for the baths shortly after they opened, detailing opening hours and charges. While the baths were never advertised as Turkish Baths for the Working Classes, this is how they were popularly known, possibly because they opened before the first class baths. Newspapers initially referred to them as such, and when Barter opened similar baths in Maylor Street, Cork, they were officially called Turkish Baths for the Destitute Poor and, more popularly as The People's Turkish Baths. (M'Comb's Guide to Belfast: the Giant's Causeway and adjoining districts of Antrim and Down…, 1861)

In 1892 the baths were bought by John North (who had previously purchased Barter's Upper Sackville Street baths in Dublin). He rebuilt them (image above) and renamed them the Belfast Hammam. Under further owners, they remained open till 1936 and were demolished ten years later. (Image courtesy the Belfast Telegraph)

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Arlington Baths Club @arlingtonbaths.co.uk · 10d

Happy birthday to Historic Pools of Britain, 10 years old today, also Sporting Heritage Day @sportingheritage historicpools.org.uk We're happy to be part of Historic Pools and sorry we couldn't make it to today's event at City Baths Newcastle. Have a great day! #NSHD #SwimmingHistory #SportHistory

historicpools.org.uk – Representing Indoor and Outdoor Historic Pools

historicpools.org.uk

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Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 10d

The image of the chapel is from the Illustrated London News (13 October 1888).

Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 10d

#onthisday, 30 September 1868, James Bryning opened the #Surrey #TurkishBaths at 191 Blackfriars Road, London. More about the image (with link to more about the baths) at www.victorianturkishbath.org/6DIRECTORY/A... The baths closed in 1888, becoming site 4 the New Surrey Chapel & Schools. 🗃️ #C19th

Contemporary photo of exterior of the baths with three men and a small girl at the door. (Photo courtesy of 'Paul')

Advertisement for the baths in the South London Press (2 January 1869)shortly after their opening, with charges and times.

The New Surrey Chapel, partly built on the site of the Turkish baths, was opened in 1888 with a sermon by the Rev C H Spurgeon. The building to the right looks similar in style to that housing the Turkish baths.

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Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 11d

I also want to rejoin in my lifetime—and I'm 90 so I can't wait too long.

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The Victorian Society @thevicsoc.bsky.social · 11d

The Society is deeply concerned by a growing pattern of the Secretary of State refusing to add important historic buildings to the National Heritage List for England, even when formally recommended to do so by Historic England.
Read more: bit.ly/4pQKFSI
📷 Hotspur Press by Alan Davies

#heritage

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Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 12d

I'm wondering if that was an ITMA catchphrase?

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Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 13d

‪The 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway reminds us that if the railway companies didn't provide #TurkishBaths for their passengers, two of them did so for their staff. For info & pix: www.victorianturkishbath.org/_6DIRECTORY/... and www.victorianturkishbath.org/_6DIRECTORY/...

Exterior of Crewe baths with Manager, William Gawthorne (centre) standing in front.

Second Class and Company's Workman Turkish bath tickets. They were also available to workers' families and members of the public, for which women's days were provided.

Section and plan of the company's first Turkish baths.

The hottest room in the current Turkish baths, currently closed, hopefully temporarily, for refurbishment.

Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 13d

The 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway brings back memories of the Euston to Liverpool overnight sleepers. They weren't bad—though they never provided #TurkishBaths, as suggested in 1890 in the 'Railway Press'. However, some Russian trains included vapour baths for the wounded.

Cutting (courtesy BNA) from the 5 April issue of 'Railway Press' suggesting that Turkish baths be provided on sleepers.

Drawing of steam baths on a Russian Hospital train, card 77 of 100 from The Great War Series of cigarette cards issued by Gallaher.

The text on the reverse of the cigarette card explains how steam tank wagons were attached to the trains allowing steam to travel through pipes to the baths.

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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 13d

#Fox by Helen Ahpornsiri, who creates intricate collage artworks created with real pressed flowers and leaves. #WomensArt #Autumn #Fall

The upper half of a sitting fox facing left looking right created with small leaves in browns, orange and green all against a white background

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Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 13d

How dispiritingly true, & of so many issues. I can understand—& sympathise with the delay—but why does corrected misinformation so frequently never reach the majority of those who read the offending piece? More to the point, cd this ever be achieved? Esp when academic status of researchers differs.

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Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 15d

#onthisday, 25 September 1859, Frederick S Rawnsley, Sec. of the St Peter's Foreign Affairs Committee in #Leeds, and Mgr of #TurkishBaths in St Peter's Square, opened his own establishment in Wade Lane. Surviving under several owners for almost 60 years, this early bath closed in 1916. +ALT 🗃️ #C19th

Advertisement in the Leeds Times (17 September 1859) announcing the forthcoming opening of Rawnsley's new bath, below which is an advertisement for Rawnsley's original baths, now under new ownership. Both men were Foreign Affairs Committeemen, and the dispute between the two also had political ramifications. More at https://victorianturkishbath.org/3TOPICS/AtoZArts/Porticos/pix/StPeters_w.htm, with image of The bath taken over by J G Walton.

Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 15d

Quite likely, judging from some of the Bermondsey folk we knew when we lived in camberwell in the 60s.

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Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 16d

So did they digitise all the books?

Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 16d

You do. pp.97-98

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Victorian Turkish Baths @victurk.bsky.social · 16d

#onthisday, 24 September 1927, #Bermondsey opened its £150,000 Grange Road Baths. Some papers lammed the council for providing 'luxurious' #TurkishBaths on the rates as they were well fitted out for a local authority facility. Gay friendly. Closed 1973—"structural defects". Demolished 1975. 🗃️ #C19th

Main frontage of the baths building in Grange Road, just south of the Thames.

Plan of part of the basement which housed the Turkish baths. These comprised three hot rooms, plunge bath, shower room, shampooing room fitted for two shampooers, and provided with the usual shampoo slabs and bowls. There was also a complementary steam room.

The carpeted cooling-room at the baths, with loungers, tables and chairs, and thirteen cubicles, each containing a couch and small table, etc.

A still from a 1930s Bermondsey Council film 'Where there's life there's soap' promoting their Turkish baths. Can be viewed online, courtesy Wellcome Collection at https://wellcomecollection.org/works/zrgauwtq

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