Victorian Turkish Baths

Diagram of hot air flow through the hot rooms, cooling as it goes until finally extracted.

Only after Tesla invented the alternating motor was it possible to efficiently ventilate Victorian #TurkishBaths.

This is Wiley. He has never seen snow before and wants to make sure he gets a real good look at it. For science. 12/10 (IG: smileywileydog)

Thanks for the Richmond Road pix.

Cover of Edith Sitwell’s English Eccentrics. Photo of Sitwell in profile, very thin angular face and black turban/headband. Hands clasped with huge rings.

I saw this book cover earlier and thought it only fair to share it.

A small painted figurine of a bent‑over servant placing several rounded beer jars into a woven basket, standing on an oblong base against a dark museum display background.

Beer for the afterlife!
An #Egyptian figurine of a servant with a basket full of #beer jars.
Figurine of servants were deposited in tombs to ensure that the deceased would enjoy the products and services represented.
Beer was a dietary staple in #Egypt, so it’s not surprising to ...🧵1/2

📷 me

Sepia photograph of the four storey Hotel Victoria in a busy street scene with a tram, and single decker and double decker open top buses. Demolished in the 1960s. The last sighting of the baths so far was in 1915 and it may be that they were, as were several others, originally closed ‘for the duration’, but never reopened after the war.

The hotel’s Turkish baths advertisement in the Southend Standard (1 Jun 1905) gives prices and opening hours. Tickets cost 2/- or 21/-for a book of twelve—though this had been reduced to 18/- by 1907. The baths were open from 11 am till 10 pm, and were closed on Sundays. Ladies day was on Friday.

#onthisday, 25 February 1905, Mr E A Broadhurst, owner of the Hotel Victoria in #Southend, opened the town's only #TurkishBaths in the hotel basement. 'Splendidly furnished & fitted with the latest conveniences'—there was no longer need to go to London for a Turkish. Closure date unknown. 🗃️ #C19th

Photograph of a seated Sutherland Macdonald displaying his tattoo design for a serpent.

Cover of what appears to be the front of a two sided circular, or possibly the cover of a small brochure, advertising his salon at the London Hammam, 76 Jermyn Street. A note at the top indicates to recipients that this is 'For private circulation only' due to its inclusion of the names of 'the highest Imperial and Royal personages in Europe' which are confidential! At the bottom Sutherland indicates that he will undertake any design at fixed prices. In the centre is a photograph of a tattooed male torso with the head of a tiger.

Photograph shows a male back with a tattoo of a winged female figure.

Plan and section of the proposed rooftop salon drawn by the London & Provincial Turkish Bath Company's architect, Arthur Cates, and submitted for approval in April 1895. There is also a detail of the roof guttering.

3/3 …In 1894 he patented his electric tattooing machine &, in 1895, a salon was built for him on the roof of the Hammam. In 1897 he bought 30 shares in the London & Provincial Turkish Baths Co Ltd, & 30 more later, only selling them in 1937. Died 1942. For image details, see ALT. 🗃️ #C19th

Advertisement from the West Surrey Times (20 June 1874) for Macdonald's father's Guildford Turkish bath on the corner of Commercial Road and Friary Street where Sutherland grew up and learned the Turkish bath business. The advert concentrates mainly on the then widely claimed health benefits of the Turkish bath.

2/3 …worked at his father Robert's Turkish baths in Friary Street, #Guildford, & in 1888 he was appointed Steward at the #London Hammam at 76 Jermyn Street. Soon after he opened a tattooist's salon there in 'a large airy room on the basement,' becoming perhaps the most famous tattooist of the day.…

Advertisement from the Aldershot Military Gazette (4 March 1882) for the Aldershot Turkish baths. They had three hot rooms, washing rooms, 1st and 2nd class dressing rooms and a large plunge. The charges ranged from 2/6 to 1/- with discounts for a dozen bought together. There were also hot and cold slipper baths at 1/6 and 1/-. Refreshments were supplied.

1/3 #onthisday, 24 February 1882, at 2.00 pm, General Sir Daniel Lysons KCB, commanding the #Aldershot Division, opened Sutherland Macdonald's Aldershot #TurkishBaths at 1 South Avenue. Sutherland also let rooms, & used one at the front to #tattoo soldiers from the nearby camp. Prior to this he had…

There’s no such thing as an unbiased chatbot. Academic librarian Raina Bloom @mmelibrarian.bsky.social on how “AI” developers ignore how people actually become informed. From Ep. 51 of Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000, “The War on Knowledge”.

(with @emilymbender.bsky.social)

Screenshot of a book paragraph with underlined text: "No one today starts studying and writing scholarly history books unless you really, really care, enough to give your life to an exhausting, not very lucrative, high-effort career. ...I'm not talking about bias as much as the palette of questions a scholar thinks to ask. ... All these analyses—some conducted in the History Lab, others in English Lit, Comp Lit, or other Labs—would be valuable, all shaped by the different questions which excite the particular scholar."

The real reason history requires continuous work, though, isn't to get new facts, it's because we keep learning to ask new *questions* about the past. We want to find things out that we never thought to find out before! How cool is that!

Advertisement from the Bridgend Chronicle (10 March 1893) for the recently opened baths which were open daily from 8 am till 8 pm. A two guinea subscription allowed unlimited baths during the year. Otherwise the charge was 2/- until 2 pm, and 1/6 afterwards. A book of 12 tickets cost 15/-, and Tuesdays were set aside for 'Ladies only'.

#onthisday, 23 February 1893, the #Neath Turkish Baths Co Ltd opened new #Turkishbaths in Alfred Street. The managers, Mr & Mrs Fraley, had previously managed those in Church Pl which closed 6 yrs earlier. Christadelphian converts were baptised in the plunge pool. The baths closed in 1912. 🗃️ #C19th

#onthisday, 23 February 1863, The #TurkishBaths for the Destitute Poor (popularly known as the People's Bath) opened at 17 Maylor Street #Cork, run by Miss Lizzie Barter & a 'committee of ladies'. Baths cost 1d or—in some cases—free. Cooling-room, 2 hot rms, & bathroom. Closed early 1890s. 🗃️ #C19th

A group of five cats by Ono Tadashige (1909-1990), a celebrated Japanese woodblock print artist. The cats are all black on a red background.

🐈‍⬛ For #caturday a group of five cats by Ono Tadashige (1909-1990), a celebrated Japanese woodblock print artist.

🗃️ #arthistory #art #cat #Japan #catsofbluesky #blackcats

Spy's caricature of Wilson for Vanity Fair

Title page of Wilson's book

The cost of transporting the London obelisk from Alexandria was borne by Erasmus Wilson, promulgator of the Victorian Turkish bath and author of a book about it.

I could be wrong but I'm fairly sure Ute Lemper has sung it in English, tho' she's certainly done it in German. I'm afraid that even without understanding the text (which can often be found printed somewhere) I much prefer to hear any vocal music in the original language, esp Janacek or any Russian.

Original drawing of Brodrick’s Baths in Cookridge Street, c.1864. In this first design, each section of the building fits perfectly with the others. The colour image shows a single-storey building, with a central section flanked by two wings, each with a small pointed dome at the end, its façade decorated with horizontal polychrome brick stripes and surmounted by a decorative parapet. The central section has a wide arched recess which frames the doorways for male and female bathers. Above this is a pointed dome; behind it two pointed saucer domes; and behind that, a much large saucer dome with a low cone-topped lantern. At the rear is a tall minaret-styled structure designed to conceal the boiler-house chimney.

Decline and fall of a design - 1. The building actually constructed, included on an early advertising poster, was severely modified. Apart from the striped façade, decorative parapet, and some domes, the building was considerably changed being smaller and simpler. The ‘minaret’ and large central saucer dome have gone, and the remaining three central domes are differently shaped and sized. The central archway is now purely decorative and there are separate entrances, for gentlemen (on the left) and ladies (on the right). The building is smaller, with five instead of six windows in each wing, and these are of a simpler, less expensive design. Finally, the absence of any boiler house flue in a building with Turkish baths, suggests that even this view is not an accurate representation of what was built.

Decline and fall of a design - 2. The more prosaic drawing on the letterhead used by the company at the time is similar to the poster image, but a plain business-like flue is clearly shown behind the central, square-based pitched roof which has replaced the saucer dome.

Decline and fall of a design - 3. In 1880, the company had to increase its income and added a second storey to provide lettable offices, leaving the building looking more or less the same as in this 1969 photo. All the domes were removed and the façade refaced so as to fit in better with its neighbours. Brodrick had not been involved, and local newspapers did not consider this an improvement! When re-opened in 1882, the first-class Turkish baths had a cooling-room with fourteen divans, a fountain ‘with a figure representing one of the naiades holding a water-lily from which a jet of water is thrown’, a plunge pool, and a gallery for smokers made possible by the addition of the second floor. There were three hot rooms at 125°F, 170°F, and 230°F, a shampooing room with four slabs, and a washing room with a variety of showers. The second-class baths were similar, but without a third hot room. Additionally, there were separate baths for women, including a mikveh 'built at the request of the Jewish community, from plans supplied by the Chief Rabbi, and used exclusively by Hebrews…'

#onthisday, 21 February 1867, the Victorian #TurkishBaths in Cookridge St, #Leeds, designed by Cuthbert Brodrick for the Oriental & General Bath Co of Leeds Ltd, was opened. The baths were purchased by Leeds Corporation in 1898, were refurbished, and remained open till 4 February 1965. +ALT 🗃️ #C19th

Picture the portico to infinity. Picture Firenze, Italia. #firenze #italia #tuscano #photography

This is personally depressing on a weird level in that at the age of 8 I told my family I would be moving to Berlin because I wanted to be an archeologist and that is where all the important people studied. At the time, I didn't realize that the Kaiserreich no longer existed.

Seeing in Three Dimensions: Stereoscopic Images and the Tutankhamun Spatial Archive, by Griffith Institute; the story behind discovering stereoscopic pairs amongst photographs by Harry Burton, and their collaboration with the @brianmayarchstereo.bsky.social
stereoscopy.blog/2026/02/21/t...

Sheet music cover for 'It's A Bit of A Ruin That Cromwell Knocked About A Bit' sung by Marie Lloyd. Inset full length photograph of Marie Lloyd. British Music Hall Society Archive image.

🏰 #SongSheetSaturday 🏰
"It's a Bit of a Ruin that Cromwell Knocked About a Bit" (1921)
Performed by the incomparable Marie Lloyd, Queen of the Music Hall who brought this witty number to life, poking fun at England's crumbling historical sites with her trademark cheeky charm #MusicHall

Original drawing of Brodrick’s Baths in Cookridge Street, c.1864. In this first design, each section of the building fits perfectly with the others. The colour image shows a single-storey building, with a central section flanked by two wings, each with a small pointed dome at the end, its façade decorated with horizontal polychrome brick stripes and surmounted by a decorative parapet. The central section has a wide arched recess which frames the doorways for male and female bathers. Above this is a pointed dome; behind it two pointed saucer domes; and behind that, a much large saucer dome with a low cone-topped lantern. At the rear is a tall minaret-styled structure designed to conceal the boiler-house chimney.

Decline and fall of a design - 1. The building actually constructed, included on an early advertising poster, was severely modified. Apart from the striped façade, decorative parapet, and some domes, the building was considerably changed being smaller and simpler. The ‘minaret’ and large central saucer dome have gone, and the remaining three central domes are differently shaped and sized. The central archway is now purely decorative and there are separate entrances, for gentlemen (on the left) and ladies (on the right). The building is smaller, with five instead of six windows in each wing, and these are of a simpler, less expensive design. Finally, the absence of any boiler house flue in a building with Turkish baths, suggests that even this view is not an accurate representation of what was built.

Decline and fall of a design - 2. The more prosaic drawing on the letterhead used by the company at the time is similar to the poster image, but a plain business-like flue is clearly shown behind the central, square-based pitched roof which has replaced the saucer dome.

Decline and fall of a design - 3. In 1880, the company had to increase its income and added a second storey to provide lettable offices, leaving the building looking more or less the same as in this 1969 photo. All the domes were removed and the façade refaced so as to fit in better with its neighbours. Brodrick had not been involved, and local newspapers did not consider this an improvement! When re-opened in 1882, the first-class Turkish baths had a cooling-room with fourteen divans, a fountain ‘with a figure representing one of the naiades holding a water-lily from which a jet of water is thrown’, a plunge pool, and a gallery for smokers made possible by the addition of the second floor. There were three hot rooms at 125°F, 170°F, and 230°F, a shampooing room with four slabs, and a washing room with a variety of showers. The second-class baths were similar, but without a third hot room. Additionally, there were separate baths for women, including a mikveh 'built at the request of the Jewish community, from plans supplied by the Chief Rabbi, and used exclusively by Hebrews…'

#onthisday, 21 February 1867, the Victorian #TurkishBaths in Cookridge St, #Leeds, designed by Cuthbert Brodrick for the Oriental & General Bath Co of Leeds Ltd, was opened. The baths were purchased by Leeds Corporation in 1898, were refurbished, and remained open till 4 February 1965. +ALT 🗃️ #C19th

The Landgericht Halle (Regional Court) in Halle (Saale), Germany

The Landgericht Halle (Regional Court) in Halle (Saale), Germany

Ah! The much missed ILEA. Those were the days. When schools had libraries with professional librarians to help staff and pupils.

Advertisement in the Oxford Chronicle (2 March 1861) shortly after the bath opened 'to the Members of the University, and Public generally' giving opening hours and charges. Entrance was 2/- or 1/- according to the time of day, with shampooing an extra 6d.

Advertisement in the Oxford Chronicle (25 May 1861) announcing that the first two hours each day would now be reserved for women. There follows a testimonial from a lady praising its therapeutic capability and recommending it to other ladies.

Auctioneer’s advertisement in the Oxford Chronicle (2 March 1878) for the sale of the baths after Job Tolley's death the previous year. Lists the facilities including the Turkish baths with cooling-room and two hot rooms, showers, etc, two courts, the swimming bath 44ft x 83ft long, and a substantive house. The Bath Street frontage was 64ft with 156ft on the River Cherwell. The baths were unsold, and were presumably sold later by private treaty, but the Turkish baths never re-opened.

#onthisday, 18 February 1861, Job Tolley opened the new #TurkishBaths he had added to his 1827-built swimming baths. He later added Fives, or Racquet, courts. Prices were lower during university vacs and women had two half-days. The baths closed in 1877, about 18 months before Tolley died. 🗃️ #C19th

Don’t take my word for it… 🗃️💾

Just like ones that used to be on the London Tube—except ours go up on the left.

When I first went to a concert there in 1951 (when the building was not yet completed) I don't remember any music-lovers reviling it, only the architectural know-alls! What a change from the (then) Albert Hall echo it was.

Photo of an Ancient Egyptian artists’s small, naturalistic painting of a standing hippopotamus on a flake of white limestone, dated c. 1479–1425. The hippo is painted in profile with head lowered and to the right. The body is outlined with black paint and painted brown. The belly, eyes, and ears are painted red. Although the ancient Egyptians were well aware of the danger and destructive power of hippos, this painted hippo has rather a friendly face! Dimensions: H. 10.8 cm (4 1/4 in); W. 12 cm (4 3/4 in); Th. 1.7 cm (11/16 in) Egyptian artists made practice sketches on flakes of limestone, sometimes for use as templates when transferring an image to the wall of a tomb or a temple. Limestone flakes were readily available because of the constant construction of temples and rock-cut tombs. A number of such sketches were recovered at Deir el-Bahri during the 1922-23 MMA excavations. This painting was acquired by the museum in the division of finds.

Happy #WorldHippoDay! 🦛❤️

To celebrate here’s a lovely naturalistic painting of a hippo on a small flake of limestone. Painted by an Egyptian artist some 3,500 years ago!

📷 The Met www.metmuseum.org/art/collecti...

#Archaeology

Memo to self: Must look at ALT more often.