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These baths were opened by (the
elder) John Maxfield at the beginning of 1861—or just possibly at the end
of 1860. It was later claimed in advertisements which appeared in the
1870s and 1880s,
that the baths were established in 1859—but this was probably
due to a
lapse of memory or a misunderstanding on the part of
Joseph Burton rather than any intent to deceive.
Maxwell had been running an earlier Turkish
bath in Albion Street, Huddersfield, in 1859 and, on being told this,
Burton might have assumed that this was when the Euston Road baths were
opened. Or perhaps Maxwell wanted to give this impression so as not to
appear to be trying to sell his baths so soon after building them—which
might suggest that they had been a failure.
The Bell Street Turkish
bath opened by Roger Evans in the spring of 1860
is well documented as being the
first to open in London.
Furthermore, Maxfield was
still running his Albion Street Turkish bath in
Huddersfield in 1859.
For John Maxfield had been involved,
in one way or another, with Turkish baths from
their first introduction into the British Isles
in 1856.
His occupation, involving work with heating
equipment, and his contact with David Urquhart
as a member of one of the
Foreign Affairs Committees,
ensured that he avoided
many of the pitfalls which affected other
establishments.
The baths were designed by the architect
James Schofield and, more than twenty-five years later, the standard
British work on the construction of Turkish baths reproduced the design
as an example of how a couple of typical narrow-fronted town houses
could be converted into a very satisfactory Turkish bath. Indeed the
author, R Owen Allsop noted that they had been the model for 'very many
commercial public baths' in the country.
The Turkish
baths are on the basement and ground floors,
while the upper floors
house a private hotel. The women's baths are in
what was the house on the right, and the men's
are in the one on the left.
Allsop describes the baths as they appeared when he was writing his book.
But the conversion of the right-hand house did not take
place until at least ten years after the men's baths opened. We know
this because in 1873 Burton wrote to Richard
Metcalfe, 'I am now building a bath entirely
devoted to ladies.' So it seems most likely that
they opened late in 1873 or early in 1874. Until then, women would have had the use of
the original men's baths at separate, specially designated times.
The women's baths, unusually,
differ only slightly from the men's baths which
Owen describes as though entering from the
street and seeing the manager's office.
Adjoining this is
a range of dressing-boxes, and further on a
cooling-room, excellently lighted by a large
window forming the whole end of the apartment.
From this little frigidarium a marble staircase
leads to the door of the tepidarium, formed at
basement level at the back of the houses. This
chamber is lighted by means of a ceiling-light
constructed in the form of a small, flat dome,
with stained glass stars set therein. A marble
seat runs round the whole of this chamber. On
either side of the staircase are placed the
calidarium and the combined shampooing room and
lavatorium, a door from the latter forming the
exit for the visitor who has completed his bath.
At one end of this apartment is a chamber with
the cold plunge-bath and needle-bath. A door
from hence leads to a staircase conducting to
the furnace chamber. A laundry is provided at
the head of these stairs. The furnace-chamber is
placed under the further end of the calidarium.
Within a few
months, the baths had a new proprietor, although
it is not at present known why the baths changed
hands so soon after they opened. It may even
have been due to Maxfield's death.
George Jacob
Holyoake, the social reformer (and the last
person in England to be gaoled for being an
atheist) was a staunch supporter of the Turkish
Bath Movement. His paper, The Reasoner,
tried to publicise the opening of new
establishments and noted, in a paragraph on the
spread of the Turkish bath, that 'Maxfield's
Bath in the Euston Road has passed into the
hands of Mr Burton. It is well attended, and the
Turkish crescent now graces the front of the
garden leading to it.'
To help him run
the baths, Joseph Burton appointed a plausible
young man by the name of Edwin Turner
Osbaldeston. It is not certain whether
Osbaldeston's claim to have been appointed as
Manager is correct, or whether he was only a
bath attendant. Osbaldeston, who had recently
deserted from the army, was given to exaggerate
many aspects of his career, though it was
unusual enough not to need any embellishment at
all. He could only have learned how to run a
Turkish bath, and become a skilled shampooer,
during his two year stay at these baths. So it
seems likely that the baths were managed by
Joseph Burton, and Osbaldeston himself noted in
his diary that the women's baths were run by
Burton's sister, Beatrice.
Osbaldeston left
Burton's baths in 1864 and emigrated to
Australia where he was involved in the setting
up and running of a number of other Turkish
baths. True to form, his stay in each was
relatively short, and the capacity in which he
was involved in them is sometimes open to
question—he may well crop up again in these
pages.
If Maxfield's ownership was short, Burton remained
proprietor for around thirty years, during which time—as we have seen—he added the
separate women's baths. His successor, James Haley,
remained for a further twenty-six years before the baths closed some time
around 1908.
Page first published 15
September 2006;
last revised
06 July 2008
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|
Noël Siver,
great-granddaughter of Edwin Turner Osbaldeston, for much invaluable
help
Susan Aykut, currently researching Edwin Turner Osbaldeston's
career in Australia
Jennifer Carnell, of the
Sensation Press, for permission to
reproduce the advertisement |
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