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Company files
destroyed by fire in 1922
It is particularly
disappointing that there is so little information available about this
company,
largely due to the destruction of the Irish Record Office in 1922. For in
the history of the Victorian Turkish bath in Ireland, The Turkish Bath
Company of Dublin Limited is the most important company of all.
Dr Richard Barter who, with David
Urquhart's help, built the first Victorian Turkish bath in Ireland, was
certainly connected in some way with the company at some stage in its
life. But we
do not know what the exact relationship was. Nor do we know if any other establishments were
connected with the company and, if so, how many, and for how long.
All the information we have is
gleaned from a letter, a lecture, and a few advertisements and notes in
contemporary newspapers.
So from the company's seal embossed on a letter, we know
that it was incorporated in 1859, and we know from several sources that
the company was responsible for building Dublin's
Lincoln Place Turkish baths
designed by Dr Barter's nephew, the architect Mr Richard Barter.
When the company offered its shares to the public, its directors were full
of confidence. The company was mentioned in a lecture given in
Cheltenham on 15 November 1859 by Dr Robert Wollaston,
who said,
I had the honor to dine with Mr Roe, the
Deputy-Governor of the Bank of Ireland, who informed me that the shares
of the Bath had been all taken by a few gentlemen, and that not one
share could be obtained, such was the confidence of commercial men in
the Bath as a commercial speculation. They expected that fifteen to
twenty per cent. would be paid to the shareholders on a capital from
£7,000 to £8,000, the cost of this Bath.
This last expectation seems, with hindsight, to have been well beyond the
bounds of possibility, though we have no record of the amount of any
actual dividend.
By 12 January 1860, the Lincoln Place
Turkish Baths were nearly complete and an extraordinary general meeting
of the shareholders, called by Messrs Brown, Craig, & Co of College
Green, the company's secretaries, was held in the Board Room on the
first floor of the baths.
Parnell R Maillard, who may have been the company chairman, conducted
the meeting which decided that the company should limit the number of
directors to five, each of whom had to hold six shares. The shareholders
were then taken on a tour of the building, which lacked only some
decoration and furnishings, and 'expressed themselves much pleased with
the arrangements'.
From the middle period of the
company's life, we learn, from a letter in the collection of the
Victorian Turkish Bath Project,
that the company was still paying half-yearly dividends in 1872, and
that a Mr C P Hamilton was both a shareholder in the company and its
auditor.
The only other information we have so
far about the company relates to its voluntary liquidation.
The notice appearing on 24 February
1880 was brief and to the point.
The liquidators were offering Barter's Lincoln Place Turkish Baths for
sale as a going concern. The sale, to the hoteliers Millar & Jury
who already owned the up-market establishment at 127 Stephen's Green, was a quick one. After a short closure for refurbishment, the
baths were again open for use on 30 November.
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