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These baths were opened in 1874 by
Henry Collis, who ran them till his death some time around 1890. Two
of his daughters continued running it until they sold it to William Billett Martin who
almost immediately sold it on to a new company, the Southsea Turkish Baths and
Hydropathic
Company Ltd in 1896.
The company engaged a Mr F Brough Burden as its first
Manager and Masseur. When the company went into voluntary liquidation in 1905,
Burden bought the baths from the liquidators and continued to run it until 1936,
when it was sold as part of a site for an office block.
In 1885, Collis advertised the
baths in the Portsmouth Times & Naval Gezette under the heading ROYAL
TURKISH BATHS. Two years later, an advertisement in Chamberlain's Portsmouth
directory indicated that the baths were 'Patronised by HRH The Duke of
Edinburgh'.
The baths were also patronised by a Dr
James Watson, a close friend of the author Conan Doyle who had his first
practice round the corner. It is, therefore, possible that Conan Doyle also went
there. Certainly Turkish baths are
visited twice by Sherlock Holmes and his own Dr Watson in two of the
Sherlock Holmes stories. Dr James Watson later became quite a large shareholder
in the Southsea Turkish Baths & Hydropathic Co Ltd.
A full entry for this establishment will be
published at a later date.
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