3-008-629 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Oriental Baths, Victoria-Street, Westminster, 1862. View of '...the handsome and extensive building...for the purpose of extending to England the benefits of that great sanitary institution, the Turkish Bath...The ceilings of [the hotrooms] are at once lighted and decorated by means of stained-glass stars of different sizes, in primitive colours. The ornamental stucco and terra-cotta work in these apartments is very elaborate and effective; the centre screens, diaper-walls, and arches leading to the fountain or douching rooms are all finished in terra-cotta...The lavatories are elegantly ornamented with marble fountains, and contain materials for douches of any required temperature...The right-hand entrance of the building leads to the horse-baths, by no means a slight feature in this important sanitary establishment, to the laundries, the drying-rooms, the waterworks, and the basement stories: these latter contain furnace-chambers, coal and coke stores, and the attendants' rooms. The building occupies an area 15,000 square feet, with a frontage of 150ft. The estimate for its construction amounted to £25,000'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.