3: Aims of the website

SO this website is an attempt to interest historians in an aspect of Victorian life which has been almost totally forgotten and which is virtually uncharted. For although there is now a growing interest in local swimming facilities, most books on local history, for example, will be searched in vain for any mention of a Turkish bath.

The website will attempt to strike an acceptable balance between academic rigour and the wish to tell a story which is interesting to read. As in any account which treats of the lives of real people, we shall find tragedy—as when we read of the inquest into the death of the Urquharts' thirteen month old baby in their own Turkish bath; there is a touch of the macabre—as in the discovery by the young Robert Service of a rotting body in a disused cooling-room; there is a touch of sadness—when we see the overgrown ruins of once famous establishments; we uncover minor dishonesty (or, perhaps,  admire brilliant public relations)—as we unravel the truth about Charles Bartholomew and the myth of his trial by the doctors of Bristol; we may be amused—as we read the sometimes vitriolic newspaper correspondence between the protagonists of the damp-air baths and those of the dry-air baths; and we may be surprised—as we find Turkish baths featured in music, paintings, novels, plays, poems, and films.

It is hoped, then, that the site will trigger an interest in the Victorian Turkish bath among local studies librarians, social historians, and all who are interested in the history of their locality or their family. For them, the site includes an Information Exchange. The more people use it, and contribute their own information, the more comprehensive the story of the Victorian Turkish bath will become, and the more wide-ranging will be the aspects of Victorian life touched upon.

                  
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4: The Information Exchange