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VICTORIAN TURKISH BATHS:
their origin, development, & gradual decline

A website for the exchange of information, by Malcolm Shifrin.
Dedicated to Devra

 Selected for inclusion in intute: arts & humanities
See the description of this site in intute: arts & humanities

                         
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Victorian Turkish Baths: their origin, development, and gradual decline

 

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Visitors unable to access frames should be able to reach every permanent page of the website containing significant textual material from here.
Please note that there are no direct links from here to the Images Index, Footnotes, Chronologies, Bibliography, or to any of the items which are not destined for permanent inclusion.

But enlarged versions of all the illustrations, most of which have expanded captions, are accessible from each of the pages listed below. Inevitably, some take a while to download on a slow connection.
    

 
 

0: 

HOME PAGE
  A list of Turkish baths which are still open
  About the author and the dedicatee
  Navigation and best viewing hints
  Bookmarking and printing pages
  Updating policy
  Copyright matters
  Pictures of the month archive
             
1:  INTRODUCTION
    1: What is a Turkish bath?
    2: Why should it interest us?
    3: Aims of the website
    4: The information exchange
    5: Citing the website
   
2:  HISTORY OF THE VICTORIAN TURKISH BATH
  Section title pages include photographs of: 
  the hot room at Cragside;
  the Minute Book of the London & Provincial
     Turkish Bath Co Ltd
    The Arrival of the Turkish bath in 19C London
    1: Introduction
    2: The first Turkish baths
    3: The first Turkish baths in London
    4: Charges and class
    5: London women and the bath
   Clean in body and mind: the Movement
    1: Introduction
    2: Urquhart, Barter, and St Anne's
    3: The Committees and The Free Press
    4: The Committees and their Turkish baths
    5: Clean in body and mind
  David Urquhart and the London Hammam
    1: Introduction
    2: A couple of books and a couple of Acts
    3: The class barrier
    4: The Subscribers' meeting
    5: Urquhart's rôle and remuneration
    6: Plan, reality, and conclusion
    The First Victorian Turkish baths in New York
    1: Dr Shepard & the first Turkish bath in the USA
    2: The First Turkish bath in Manhattan
  The Hot air controversy: wet air or dry air?
    1: Background to the controversy
    2: The start of the row: Dr Madden's article
    3: Dr Barter's response
    4: Support from others
    5: Conclusion
  Nothing but a load of hot air: controversies
    1: Introduction
    2: Technology and attitudes
    3: Technological issues
    4: Attitudinal issues;  Cleanliness
    5: Doctors' attitudes
    6: Class
    7: Charges of indolence and effeminacy
    8: Shampooing and nakedness
    9: Terminology and architectural style
  10: Coda;  Postscript
  Review of the sources for a Turkish bath history
    1: Before the Victorian Turkish bath
    2: Urquhart & the Victorian Turkish bath
    3: Barter & the Victorian Turkish bath
    4: Some early publications
    5: Controversy and problems
    6: Rise of Victorian Turkish bath
    7: Publicly funded baths
    8: Baths for special needs
  Turkish baths for animals
    1: Introduction
    2: The first Turkish baths for animals
    3: Turkish baths for racehorses
    4: Turkish baths for urban working horses
   
3:  Victorian Turkish bath TOPICS
  Section title pages include:
  dragon tattoo by Sutherland Macdonald;
  caricature of a first-timer's visit to a Turkish bath.
  'Classical porticos' and 'touches of eastern grandeur'
    1: The Turkish bath as a procedure
    2: The Turkish bath as a facility  
    3: Roman bath or Turkish bath?
    4: A working class movement
  Performance in the raw
    1: The stages of the Turkish bath
    2: Urquhart's performance
    3: Theatre and performance
    4: The ritual of the towels
    5: The shampooing ritual
    6: The hand-clapping ritual
    7: The self-confident bathers
  Shampooing in 19th century London
    1: Charles Booth's survey
    2: The Turkish baths surveyed
    3: The shampooers
    4: Hours and holidays
    5: Shampooers' wages
    6: Tips, tipping, and total income
  Women and the Victorian Turkish bath
    1:   Introduction
    2:   The first Victorian Turkish baths
    3:   Women and the first Turkish baths
    4:   Availability of the baths to women
    5:   Entrance charges & attendants' wages
    6:   Attitudes to privacy, nudity, & exercise
    7:   The Turkish bath and women's health
   —    Table: Victorian Turkish Baths known to have had women's facilities
  —Shorter topics
  Cabinet baths: the DIY approach
  Caricatures and cartoons
  David and Harriet Urquhart: a team
  The Death of William Urquhart
  Earliest Turkish bath photos?
  Hydropathy and wet sheet packing
  James Joyce's Ulysses
  Ladies' night in a Turkish bath
  Letter from Constantinople
  Turkish baths: hot, humid, or steamy?
  Turkish baths in fiction
  The Urquharts' bath at Riverside
  Verse and worse
  Which was Trollope's Jermyn St Turkish bath?
      
4:  PERSONS connected with Turkish baths
  Section title pages include images of:
  Francis Francis;
  Thomas Gibson Bowles;
  Major Robert Poore;
  Some Turkish bath personalities
  George Elson
   
5:  Public COMPANIES involved with Turkish baths
  Section title pages include images of:
  Share certificate of the Stroud Baths Society Ltd
  Turkish bath companies
  The articles on individual companies are reached from:
  List of Limited Liability Companies  
            
6:  DIRECTORY of Turkish baths in the British Isles
  The articles on individual establishments
are reached from the lists below, and are preceded by notes on . . .
  The directory, and what is included
  How the Turkish baths in the directory have been found and dated
  Lists of Turkish baths in the British Isles by PLACE
  England: London
  England: Provinces
  Ireland
  Scotland
  Wales
  Lists of some special user Turkish baths in the British Isles by TYPE
  Animals
  Asylums
  Clubs
  Hospitals
  Houses
  Hydros
  Ocean liners
  Workhouses
  Lists of some Turkish baths outside the British Isles by CONTINENT
  Scope of the overseas lists
  Africa        
  Australasia
  Europe
  North America
          
  glOSSARY
  List of terms included
   
  Images index & picture gallery
  Section title page includes:
  weight table from the Imperial Hotel bedrooms
      
  Links
  Links to and from the site
   

(Site map last updated 16 March 2008 )
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The right of Malcolm Shifrin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

                        
                  

           
       
Comments and queries are most welcome and can be sent to:
malcolm@victorianturkishbath.org
                       

 

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