It is quite a juxtaposition to walk through the City of London, with its glass office blocks, concrete buildings and shops, to then find yourself facing at a Turkish style Victorian Bath House.
These were once very common, in the late 1800s, but, as far as I can find, this is the last of its kind, in London.
So why is it here and when and why was it built?
During the early to mid 1800s London's population tripled to over 3 million residents, bringing with it many problems, including housing issues, which led to health and hygiene problems.
To try and solve this the Baths and Washhouses Act of 1846 was introduced, which encouraged local authorities to provide adequate public washing and bathing facilities.
While many washhouses were large buildings that could be used by many people, the more affluent residents wanted something more to their taste.
Enter David Urquhart. As a diplomat Mr Urquhart had visited Moorish Spain, Greece and Turkey and suggested the use of 'Turkish Baths', a phrase that he coined, in 1850. He claimed that these baths could cure alcoholism, baldness, cholera, constipation and dementia, all of which was unfounded.
Urquhart oversaw the building of many of these Turkish Baths and, in 1860, Roger Evans, a colleague of Urquhart's, opened the first of these Turkish Baths at 5 Bell Street, near Marble Arch.
Eventually there were over 100 Turkish baths in London.
Although a bath house has been on this site since around 1817, this building dates from 1895.
The original building was sold and then sold again, ending up being owned by the Neville family, who owned similar baths. In 1883, the Neville family had the building demolished and commissioned G Harold Elphick to design a new one, which opened in 1895.
It may look kind of familiar, to some, as Elphick based the design on the shrine at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem.
Although the building is quite small, once inside you would have headed downstairs to where there were two subterranean floors. Marble floors, sunken baths and rooms would have greeted the visitors during its opening times of 07:00 and 21:00.
On entering the bath house the customer would enter the first room, which was heated with the hot, dry air, rather than steam. This was the cleansing room. Following this they would move to a hotter room, before washing with cold water. If the customer wished, they could receive a massage before they moved into the cooling room.
While many baths catered for both sexes, these baths, at Bishopsgate, were exclusively for men.
In 1954 the baths closed their doors and the building was then used for different purposes. During the 1970s and 1980s it became a club, called 'Gallipoli'.
Then, in 2016, it reopened as a restaurant and venue-for-hire, with much of the interior decoration, details and features restored.
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