The Strand Lane Bath

What is it about?

This article fixes the year (1776) in which the mysterious Strand Lane 'Roman' Bath actually came into use as a bath and identifies the individual responsible for this change in its use. It also discusses the building of the second bath pool which was added to it at the same time, and operated along with it until it was covered over in 1893/4. The article includes illustrations of both baths, and sets them in the context of the eighteenth-century fashion for cold bathing.

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Why is it important?

This is the first attempt ever to clarify the history of the Strand Lane Bath from the late eighteenth to the mid-ninteenth century, and to establish that the label 'bath' only really became appropriate to it as late as 1776.