3-008-716 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Turkish baths in Jermyn-street, [London]: the meshlakh, or cooling-room 1862. '...from the designs and under the professional superintendence of Mr. J. Somers Clarke. [View of] the meshlakh or apodyterium, looking towards the entrance. A portion of the plunge bath is in the immediate foreground. Right and left are low, perforated balustrades, dividing the apartment into compartments, so that, while having an uninterrupted view of all around, perfect privacy is still preserved. To the left, in the distance, is the cawahjie's, or coffee-man's, department, with his small fireplace in the comer; to the right we see the shelves for the linen and cupboards for the boots and shoes of the bathers. The latticed gallery over the entrance-doors is arranged with couches to be used by bathers frequenting the private bath...the striking and sparkling lightness and airiness produced by the perforated spandrils and fretwork in the roof, the gallery, and elsewhere carry us back to the days of our pilgrimage in Egypt. It is easy to trace the Eastern sources whence the architect has drawn his general inspiration for the whole subject, and it has been admirably worked out, with singular felicity of adaptation, in a restricted space'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.