The Turkish bath

Construction

Turkish delight

Full of eastern promise, the Arlington Baths’ homage to the Alhambra is slowly giving up its secrets.

A life in concrete

The innovative system used to build our Turkish Bath was invented by Charles Drake, a Victorian concrete pioneer. Listen to an interview with his great-grandson, David Scott Cowan about his work and life.

Decoration

Tiles in the Turkish

The Turkish Suite in the Arlington Baths has some beautiful encaustic and vitreous mosaic tiles from some of the best manufacturers of the Victorian period.

Meandering

Ancient ‘Greek’ Frets or Keys feature lines enclosing spaces named meanders for the Meander River in modern-day Turkey. The patterns are thought to be representations of the sea and labyrinths.

Technology

Heating the air

A Victorian Turkish bath circulated heated air to create a hot dry atmosphere. How was that done?

Health and wellbeing

The Turkish bath experience

Taking a Turkish bath was a fashionable new luxury from the late 1850s. But what was the experience like?

Rudolf Nureyev, Wee Jimmy and the Arlington Baths

When we delved into the archive boxes in the Bath’s basement, we made a discovery which confirms the Arlington’s connection to one of the most famous, talented and glamorous men of the 20th century.

Working

Staff in the Turkish bath

The Arlington Baths Club recruited staff specifically for the Turkish Bath. As the Club grew and facilities expanded, so did the variety of staff roles.

Changes and challenges

Survival of our Turkish bath

Our Turkish bath is a working relic of the Victorian age but there have been times that its survival was not assured, and there are challenges ahead.

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Many thanks to Turkish baths historian Malcom Shifrin for valuable background information on the development, experience and culture of Victorian Turkish baths in the UK and Ireland.

Lots more information is available on his website: The Victorian Turkish bath