Victorian Turkish Baths Picture of the Month for October 2009
Birmingham: 63 Frederick Street:
pavement marker commemorating the opening in 1863
of W E Wiley's Hammam
and Turkish Baths
This is one of a series of sixteen pavement markers which comprise the Charm Bracelet Trail round buildings in Newhall Hill and Frederick Street, part of Birmingham's award winning Jewellery Quarter. The markers are the work of Birmingham-based artists Mick Thacker and Mark Renn. Each of the markers commemorates a building on one of the two streets and the one above refers to W E Wiley's Turkish bath, uniquely constructed within a factory for the manufacture of pencils and gold pens. The baths, designed by local architect J G Bland, opened to the public on 12 February 1863, and a full account will appear in the website's Directory section in the near future.
The Turkish baths were on the top three floors of
the four-storey section of the building on the right of the
illustration. The building looks slightly different today: the pyramids
have been removed from the towers and a (rather ugly) parapet fills in
the space between the towers, and between the baths and the towers.
Mark Wilson for permission to use his photograph
Comments and queries are most welcome and can be sent to:
malcolm@victorianturkishbath.org