Carlisle Turkish Baths
Carlisle's Public Baths
Early in 1883, Carlisle's Baths Subcommittee took a trip to Liverpool and a number of other cities to discover what provision they had made for bathing and swimming. On their return they agreed that, in addition to swimming pools, they should also provide slipper baths, vapour baths, and showers at a cost, excluding the site, of around £6,000.
The foundation stone was laid on 4 September 1883 and the baths were
opened by the Mayor on 31 July the following year.
When opened, they comprised 1st and 2nd class swimming pools (as
required by the Baths and Washhouses Acts) and a pool for women. There
were also 22 slipper baths (including 5 for women), 4 cabinet vapour
baths (within weeks increased to 6), and what was called a Roman
bath—though what exactly this was, is not known.
However, it does not appear to have been any type of Victorian
Turkish bath. These had been considered, but finance was not available
and a small area adjacent to the baths building was specifically allocated for
their later construction.
A vapour or Roman bath, together with a shower and spray, cost one
shilling. Hygiene was uppermost in the collective committee mind,
Regulation 4 stating that, 'Bathers are not to spit in the water of the
baths, but when necessary are to use the spittoons at the sides of the
baths'.
Agreeing the Turkish Baths
The addition of the promised Turkish baths was already being
considered within ten months of the pools' opening. However, it was
decided that this could not yet be considered as the estimated cost of
£250 was around £150 more than they then had available.
It was to be another five years before the council felt able to
proceed, and Percy Dalton, later to be appointed Carlisle's City Engineer and Surveyor, was
instructed to prepare plans and estimates for the site recently
purchased from Hudson Scott and Sons for that purpose.
Entrusting the design of public baths to local authority surveyors or
engineers had not been an unqualified success in some areas. But
Carlisle was fortunate in that Dalton was a gifted practitioner of his
art. During his years in post he would design five bridges taking
traffic into town, and be placed in charge of the city's housing
programme. With his innovative designs, and the wide range of his
responsibilities, it is generally accepted that he beneficially changed
the face of Carlisle forever.
In July 1901, Carlisle adopted the Baths and Washhouses Acts to
enable them to borrow £1,985 to build the Turkish baths, and permission
was granted for a loan to be repaid over 20 years. The following year
new plans were prepared for a slightly smaller set of baths in order to
keep within budget, and these were duly approved. But for one reason or
other building work was not started, and was repeatedly delayed.
By 1908 it seemed as though the baths would never be built, but the
final impetus to start was the receipt of a letter from the Local
Government Board asking that if the Corporation was not going to act on
the loan sanction it should be returned for cancellation.
The Surveyor was asked to resubmit the plans, prepare bills of
quantities, and advertise for tenders. Even so, there was still
opposition to the baths with an amendment to refer the decision back for
a month. The extended discussion over the amendment was reported
in great detail by the local paper. But the general sense of the
argument was between those who objected to the cost, and those who
argued that 'It ought not to be a question of £ s d. The health of the
people…was the city's best asset,' and that the baths would specially
benefit the aged and the poor. Ten people voted for the amendment, and a
large majority against.
During the intervening years, improvements had been made to the
building's specification and the Council now needed to increase the
amount they needed to borrow by an additional £515. This would bring the
total being sought to £2,500 and the Local Government Board had to be
asked to sanction this.
Naturally
this gave rise to yet another—though this time final—attempt to refer the project back, a Mr Tiffen
declaring that 'such places were aristocratic luxuries'. This was
rebutted by Mr Dalton who stated that when he visited the Leeds Turkish
baths one afternoon 'they were full, not of aristocrats but of working
men'. The amendment was defeated by 24 votes to 8.
Finally, in October 1908, a contract worth £2,289.11.0. was signed
with William Johnstone, the local builder who had won the public tender
for the construction of the building. The plans were agreed, and official approval received
from the Local Government Board.
Work proceeded and, at the beginning of June 1909, the Surveyor was authorised to appoint
one male and one female attendant to undertake shampooing at wages of 30/- and 7/6 per
week respectively. At first glance this might seem
inequitable, even by the standards of the day, but it has to be borne in mind that when the subcommittee
shortly afterwards set the entrance charges and opening hours, male
bathers were allocated five days in the week, whereas women were only
allocated one—Tuesday.
The wages therefore appear to have been 5/- per day for the male attendant
and 7/6 per day for the female attendant. However, though not stated in
the authorisation, it may have been taken for granted that the male
attendant lived on the premises and had free rent, heat and lighting.
This was the situation in many Turkish baths where there was a more even
distribution of opening hours between the sexes, or when there were
separate baths for women. In such cases a married couple would
frequently be appointed. Further research is needed to determine
what the actual remuneration was in this case, and whether there were
any additional perks.
But if we are not sure about the remuneration we do know that John
Ormston, previously at Newcastle Turkish baths for 20 years, was
appointed to take charge of those at Carlisle. Three years later he was
made Baths Superintendent, and only retired in 1939 when he was
succeeded by Robert Gardner, Superintendent of Arbroath Baths.
Due to the need to keep costs down to an acceptable level, the requirement of the Baths and Washhouses Acts that two classes of
baths had to be provided could not be met by having separate sets of baths,
such as could be found in a few commercial Turkish baths. Instead, the common
practice of setting different prices and times for each class was more
easily adopted. From 9.00 am till noon or 5.30 pm (according to the day
of the week), the first class charge was 2/-; for the rest of the
day, the charge was 1/-.
The Turkish Baths open
Unlike the practice in many local authorities at that time,
there were no celebratory gala dinners in Carlisle when, after 25 years
in the planning, the new Turkish baths opened on 20 September 1909.
There was no special Opening Day, and little advance publicity has been
found.
Indeed, the necessary authority to incur expenditure on advertising the baths was only
passed two and a half weeks after their opening—a low-key beginning
which seems also to exemplify the council's attitude to the baths in
more recent times.
It may be that there was much publicity within the existing baths,
and leaflets about the new facility might have been available. The only
advance promotion so far recorded was the opening of the new baths to
public view on 17 September. This was, according to the Carlisle
Journal,
visited by a large number of people interested in this
important addition to the means existing within the city of enabling the
inhabitants to secure and preserve the purity of their bodies and thus
promote their happiness and health.
This article also provides us with the best description we have of how the building was laid out when it first opened.
Because the Turkish baths were originally envisioned solely as an
extension to the main baths, there was no direct entrance from the
street. The west wall was the only side of the building originally visible from the
outside.
This is now obscured by a later two-storey block which
incorporates the original access passageway leading from the pools. The
passage, and therefore the Turkish baths, are currently entered through a plain modern doorway from James Street.
But when the Turkish baths opened, bathers entered through the main baths
entrance. Men passed through the second class swimming pool hall
directly into the Turkish baths passage, while women entered the
passage from their own baths, through a door which was only
unlocked on Tuesdays.
Bathers purchased their tickets through a window in the attendant's
room at the end of the passage. Continuing into an area to their right,
they removed their shoes and replaced them with felt slippers. Shoes and valuables were left with the attendant for safekeeping in his storeroom lockers, and light refreshments could be ordered for consumption after the bath.
The bathers then passed through a horseshoe shaped entrance into the Terrazzo
paved cooling-room (captioned Lounge on the plan). This was, and remains,
the heart of the baths, although the description which follows is of the
baths as they were on the day they opened. Immediately in front of the
bathers were tables and chairs at which they could sit and read newspapers
and magazines, or have a drink and a snack after their bath.
Beyond this relaxation area is the cold plunge pool. This is constructed of concrete and faced with white glazed bricks.
Although the pool is featured as the centrepiece of the room, it can
only be entered down the steps at the far end, under the horseshoe archway leading
from the hot area. The wooden doors flanking the archway both have surrounds of alternating green and yellow tiles.
Lining the outer walls of the cooling-room are the changing and relaxation cubicles, three single and two double on each side of the pool. These are separated by polished wooden screens with art nouveau stained glass panels in their upper parts. Much use is made of fine tiling and glazed
faïence work with shades of pale green, pale blue, and buff glazes;
also incorporated at intervals are paired tiles of art nouveau design. The
tiling, horseshoe arches and flamboyant corbels all combine to give what
was thought of some years ago as a distinctly oriental appearance. A
weighing machine was provided for bathers who wished to check their
weight before and after their Turkish bath.
Between
the cooling-room and the hot room area are a number of small windowed
lobbies reached through the doors on either side of the pool. Each door
leads from the cooling-room to a small lobby with access to the pool
steps and to the first hot room. But the lobby on the right also leads to
and from the shampooing room, while that on the left accesses the small Russian steam room, the temperature
of which was controlled by a valve key operated by the bath
attendant.
All three hot rooms and the shampooing room are plainer in appearance
than the cooling-room, although the Terrazzo floor continues throughout.
The walls are of white glazed bricks and the ceilings finished in white
enamelled iron. Possibly dictated by the site, each of the three hot
rooms is trapezium shaped, though the first is much larger than each of
the others. It also has marble slabs for sitting or lying down, and a
drinking fountain.
The shampooing room was located next to the first hot room. It had
two marble slabs, with hot and cold sprays and, leading off it, a small
room with needle and douche showers.
The hot rooms were designed to be kept at 130, 160, and 200 degrees
Fahrenheit, and were well ventilated, the air being heated by one of
Constantine's Convoluted
Stoves. This had long been the industry standard for Turkish
baths, and Carlisle's stove only became irreparable in 1936 when it had to be
replaced—by a second Constantine stove.
All the original internal decorative tiling and glazed faïence work
was executed by the respected company Minton and Hollins of
Stoke-on-Trent. Apart from that, and the heating and ventilation work
undertaken by Constantine's of Manchester, all the work was undertaken
by local craftsmen.
The Turkish Baths more recently
Starting slowly with little publicity and only picking up numbers
gradually, Carlisle's Turkish baths were never going to be a great money
spinner. It was not then considered essential for public services to
make a profit, let alone a profit for an outsourced operating company.
In 1922, it was decided to abandon the maintenance of the class
system and all Turkish baths would cost 2/-. Some effort was put
into increasing the number of bathers. Carlisle United was granted a 10%
concessionary discount for their players provided they bought one
hundred tickets at a time.
While a few years earlier, a grateful patron, Joseph J Jopling, Head
Master of Friends' School, Wigton, offered the council a gift of five
pounds to be spent on advertising free tickets to be given to 100 people
who had never had a Turkish bath before. The council accepted, though
with what result is not known.
Mr Jopling did not offer to pay for the tickets himself, as was widely
reported in many newspapers around the country,
but the council did set aside 100 free tickets.
Closure was threatened, and carried out, on several occasions, but
always the public good won a reprieve. In 1937, a proposal to close had
been overturned after a suggested consultation with the city's medical
profession found that a large majority of doctors replying were in
favour of its continuation.
The Turkish baths were closed in the late 1950s, but re-opened at the
end of 1959. In what appears to be a
series of regular attempts, closure was threatened again at the end of 1991 but a reprieve followed a petition signed by more than 800 people.
Another reopening, this time of what was now inexplicably being called a Victorian Health Suite and outsourced to GLL (which trades as "Better"), followed at the end of 1995.
The future of Carlisle Turkish Baths?
The best piece of news for lovers of the baths was the announcement
in 2010 that the 'Turkish Suite' had been designated a Listed Grade II
building for reasons of quality, intactness, and rarity. It will now
be extremely difficult to demolish the building, though by no means
impossible to close the baths and 'repurpose' them.
The problem was well encapsulated in a piece by Rob Sutton, Audience
and Content Editor of News & Star, written in 2019.
For a short while after the 1992 reprieve, wrote Sutton,
the Victorian Suite was managed to a higher standard with its own attendant and payment till installed, indeed it started to make a profit so it was saved from closure.
Now we have drifted back to poor management, no full time attendant, poor maintenance and cleanliness.
Pointing his finger at the heart of the matter, Sutton continued,
The "Better" organisation see The Victorian Health Suite as an
encumbrance, an add on to The Pools that is poorly managed by them.
This is a fine Victorian Health Spa one of only a few left
in the country with its unique architecture.
Its value for mental health and stress relief are equal to any
gymnasium.
Fitness over mental health always seems to take precedence with
sports activities attracting VAT relief but not Health spas.
Now the Turkish Baths are under the most serious threat of all
because the original baths are to be demolished. Although the hot rooms,
sauna, and steam room have their own independent heating systems, the
building is dependent on the Pools for its central heating system and
the water for its showers.
A support group is in the process of being set up and already has its
Facebook page and
Twitter homepage but, as successful groups in
Manchester, Newcastle, and Glasgow have shown, this is not something
that can be achieved overnight and time is of the essence.
The local News & Star is again very supportive. Most
recently Phil Coleman, its Chief Reporter has written that 'Fears are
growing for the future of a unique Carlisle building,' noting the
suggestion of former city councillor Elsie Martlew that,
The Pools and the Turkish Baths—both of which are owned by the
city council—are undergoing a decline after being outsourced and
managed by a private company.
Mrs Martlew said: 'I recently raised my concerns with a
leading city councillor who told me that their demise was because "they
weren’t well used".
'That is hardly surprising when you look at the exterior of the
building and the total lack of marketing of this unique facility.'
Coleman reported that Mrs Martlew urged the city council to take,
positive and decisive action' to ensure the building’s future by: taking it back into council control; guaranteeing its future after the demolition of The Pools: restoring the building; and marketing it to encourage its wider use by the public.
and added,
I call on the city council to give an immediate guarantee to
safeguard the future of the building and to continue to operate it as
the Turkish Baths. A failure to do so will be tantamount to municipal
vandalism.
We can only hope that the cutting off of the heating and water supply
resulting from the demolition of the old pools does not lead to these
wonderful Turkish baths being vandalised while a rescue is being
launched. Or that any repurposing proposals are not actively delayed so
the baths' existing equipment deteriorates so as to preclude the
retention of their original purpose.
This type of delay has been used elsewhere in the past. Carlisle City
Council Leader John Mallinson has been quick to deny that the
building is at risk; John Stevenson, the local MP, has been quick
to welcome a £400k investment in the historic Turkish Baths.
But these statements seem designed to give the protesters a false sense of
security.
There has been no assurance that the building will continue to be used as
a Turkish bath. Even more relevant is the total absence of any
indication of how it has been proposed to repurpose the building. No one
gets a grant of such a size without someone having put in a bid for it,
and it is highly unlikely that such a bid would have been granted
without a specific purpose being stated. This sounds like another
typical faux 'public consultation' after the crucial decision has already been
made.
These baths, designed during Queen Victoria's reign, are amongst the
very finest remaining Victorian Turkish baths in the country. They should not
be left in the hands of an outsourced company which is not interested in
operating them, and does not have a good record managing other Turkish baths.
Carlisle's Turkish baths have never been marketed—as they deserve—as a tourist
attraction, as are those in Harrogate or Baden-Baden, Germany. After an active visit learning about the castle, what could be better than relaxing in the city's unique Turkish bath? Handled wisely, the baths can be made profitable along the lines suggested by the Facebook Campaign. These wonderful Victorian Turkish baths are not an asset which has to be invented. They are there for the taking.
The baths were closed on 12 November 2022. What was Carlisle Council
waiting for?
This page first published 19 May 2021
and slightly revised 12 November 2022
