THE ROYAL WATERLOO BATH
"This very elegant floating bath is stationed near the north end of the Waterloo-bridge, and has recently been built and completed with entirely new and substantial materials, in a style of superior accommodation, at a very considerable expense: it contains a plunging bath, 24 feet long by 8 feet wide, and two private baths, 10 feet long by 8 feet wide. The depth may be regulated at pleasure by machinery, which raises or depresses the bottom as required, secured by cross timbers, and bound with iron. To each of the baths are attached small dressing rooms, commodiously fitted up, with proper persons to attend upon visitors. These baths are so constructed, that the water, being a running stream, is changed every two minutes. The advantage of bathing in a flowing stream is obvious, and gives a decided preference over a cold still bath, which is frequently dangerous from the violence of the shock. The terms of bathing, as our readers will see, are extremely moderate:--they are--In the plunging-bath. . £0 1s. 0d.
For the season. . . £1 11s. 6p.
In the private baths . £0 1s. 6p.
For the season. . . £2 2s. 0p.
Constant attendance at Waterloo-bridge to convey visitors to and from the bath.
Bathing is so essentially connected with health, that we cannot but congratulate the public on this new establishment. It is sigular that so few of the kind should be known in London, while there is scarcely a street in the French metropolis that has not its cold, warm, vapour, Chinese, and Tuscan baths, with a variety of others, suiting the capricious tastes of the inhabitants. Yet how deficient they are in the most important article connected with bathing every body knows, while we have a noble river filled with the purest and most wholesome waters in the world. The want of baths in London has led to the incommodious and indecorous practice of public exposure in the Thames.
All I can say is, eek! Or maybe just ick. Though the waters of the Thames might indeed have been pure and wholesome upriver, at this point it served as drainage for all the city...gulp! I applaud the recognition that bathing was associated with good health and understand the desire for cleanliness (and for getting the nudists off the banks of the river!) but do have to wonder if the writer of this article visited the baths in person. Unfortunately, no interior views were provided--it would have been interesting to see how the water depth controls worked.
I don't think any young ladies of fashion would come here; I expect it was for the working class population of London who didn't have hip baths before the fireplaces in their bedrooms and legions of servants to carry up cans of hot water to fill them.
When I was growing up in 90's (20th century, not 18th) we actually attended the public bath during our stay in Ukraine's Inn. That was really disgusting. Although, it didn't seem so, back then. But I like this small bathing tube, it looks so elegant.
ReplyDeleteOh my stars, we are so spoiled here in the USA! Great post!
ReplyDeleteVery interesting! I can imagine if we traveled back then, the smell of society would probably assault our poor nostrils.
ReplyDeleteJapan still has public baths, although I've heard they're fairly clean and that it's actually quite a relaxing experience. Like a lot of things over there, it's become somewhat of a ritual.
I'm sure the Japanese baths are quite clean...and Samalia's Ukrainian bath may well have been also...but I CAN'T imagine bathing in water from the Thames! At this time the way the piers of the bridges were built, it restricted the flow of water quite a bit...so whatever runoff flowed in from the sewers and drainage ditches didn't move along very swiftly. If fact, it had only been six years since the last time the Thames froze over and people could walk across it.
ReplyDeleteEW the idea of bathing in the Thames sounds quite odious though if one didn't have a choice then perhaps it was better than not bathing at all? Or maybe not.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me of a book I just read called "The Dirt on Clean", a history of bathing in the West. In the early 19th Century bathing in the sea was becoming popular as a medical remedy. Maybe this is a "poor man's" version of that?
ReplyDeleteThe sea bathing craze in the late 18th and early 19th century was just that--going off to a sea-side resort like Brighton or Margate topaddle abuot in the sea, which was supposedly good for all sorts of ailments. I think this was just what it said--a place to get clean. Remember that there was very, very little indoor plumbing in London, and taking a bath meant hauling your own buckets to the neighborhood pump to get your water.
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