References to Victorian Turkish baths in
The Survey of London: three corrections You can print this page -- Click for printer-friendly version

Of more than 100 Turkish baths which were open in London some time after the beginning of 1856, the 45 volumes of the Survey of London, which are available online, have references to seven.

If this seems a very small proportion, it should be noted that, according to the survey's website, 'the earlier volumes are highly selective and include very few buildings erected after about 1800.'

Three of the seven references have factual errors and these appear below with notes.

1. No.92 Jermyn Street: Survey of London. Volumes 29 and 30: St James Westminster, Part 1 (1960), pp. 271-284.
Reference: ‘Nos 91 and 92, the Savoy Turkish Baths, were erected to designs by George Somers Clarke in 1862. They were demolished in 1976.’
Correction:
This entry confuses two Turkish baths which were located in Jermyn Street: that at No. 92 (The Savoy Turkish Baths) opened in 1910 and closed in 1976. It was not demolished, and the basement now houses a restaurant. The baths designed by George Somers Clarke—David Urquhart’s London Hammam, indisputably the most famous Victorian Turkish bath in Britain (and immortalised in Trollope’s short story The Turkish bath)—opened in 1862 attached to the rear of No.76 Jermyn Street in place of the stables. It was destroyed in the London blitz in 1941.
Source: ‘Two Turkish baths in Jermyn Street’ in: Notes and queries  (Vol.241, No 4, Dec 1996)  p.430;   and on this website, here.

2. No.32 Golden Square: Survey of London. Volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2 (1963), pp. 162-165.
Reference: ‘In the early nineteenth century No. 32 was occupied as a bead warehouse and later by a surgeon and a solicitor. It housed the London Homoeopathic Hospital from 1851 to 1856 and a Turkish bath from 1861 to 1865.’
Correction: The Turkish bath opened during the week beginning 10 Sep 1860.
Source: Daily News (10 Sep 1860).

3. No.23 Leicester Square: Survey of London. Volumes 33 and 34: St Anne Soho (1966), pp. 488-503.
Reference: ‘No. 23 was occupied from 1836 to 1872 by James Charles Edington, silversmith, and from 1873 to 1930 by a Turkish bath establishment. The site was later incorporated into that of the Odeon.’
Correction: Edington may have originally been a silversmith, but he was already running a Turkish bath on these premises in October 1868.
Source: Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper (11 Oct 1868).


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