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97-472: Ironmonger Row Baths were built in two phases. The first, a public wash house and slipper baths, opened in 1931. The second phase, comprising the main swimming pool, the children's pool, and Victorian-style Turkish baths , opened in 1938. They are located at Ironmonger Row, in the St Luke's district, near Old Street , Islington , London . The baths include a steam room, a Victorian-style Turkish bath comprising

194-624: A Turkish bath by Westerners, is a type of steam bath or a place of public bathing associated with the Islamic world . It is a prominent feature in the culture of the Muslim world and was inherited from the model of the Roman thermae . Muslim bathhouses or hammams were historically found across the Middle East , North Africa , al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia , i.e. Spain and Portugal ), Central Asia ,

291-588: A Turkish bath. The baths comprised a cooling-room, two hot rooms, and showers, which latter devices were so unusual they needed to be described by the reporter covering the opening of the baths. This was not only the first Victorian Turkish bath to be built in one of the British colonies, but it opened a few months before the first bath in London, capital of the Empire. The venture was successful, over 4,000 baths being taken during

388-422: A cold room to progressively hotter rooms. Men are usually washed by male bath attendants and women by female attendants before they are given a massage. Some details of the process vary from region to region, such as the presence or absence of pools where visitors can immerse themselves in water. In more conservative areas women are less likely to bathe in just their underwear while in areas where hammams have become

485-717: A converted biscuit factory in Moray Place, Dunedin. Opening in December 1874, it comprised a cooling-room, two hot rooms, a shampooing room and a tepid water swimming pool. Later Turkish baths opened in several locations including Auckland, Christchurch, Nelson, and Wellington. In Canada the chronology is less clear. The first large Victorian Turkish bath opened in 1869 in the French-speaking city of Montreal at McBean's Turkish Bath Hotel in Monique Street, although there may have been

582-473: A costume on re-entering the hot-rooms afterwards, whereas both sweat and residual chemicals are more effectively removed from an uncovered body. In Britain, for most of the 20th and late 19th centuries, men and women were able to bathe naked in separate baths, or separate sessions, a writer in the Christian World noting in 1881 that 'man in a state of nudity' may be seen 'any day in a Turkish bath'. This

679-811: A decline in their use – although to varying degrees depending on regional cultural practices. In many regions hammams have been abandoned, demolished or converted to serve as commercial buildings or cultural venues. Some have been converted into museums or art galleries , as with the examples of the Bayezid II Hamam in Istanbul , which now houses a hammam museum, and the Davud Pasha (or Daut Pasha) Hamam in Skopje , North Macedonia . In Turkey many historic hammams continue to operate either for locals or for tourists; in some cases this has led to neglected historic hammams such as

776-513: A gift of £5,000 from steel magnate Andrew Carnegie to the people of his hometown. Further gifts from Carnegie totalling £45,000 enabled the corporation to replace them by building a larger set of baths in Pilmuir Street which opened on 31 March 1905. These Turkish baths closed in 2008, though some of the rooms are now used for other purposes. Edinburgh citizens had to wait until 1901 for their corporation to build its only Turkish baths, part of

873-416: A hammam after childbirth or illness. However, even al-Ghazali thought it admissible for men to prohibit their wives or sisters from using the hammam. For al-Ghazali the main point of contention surrounding hammams was nakedness, and he warned that overt nakedness was to be avoided ("… he should shield it from the sight of others and second, guard against the touch of others.") His writing focused especially on

970-645: A living, to give them more time to support his political work, and to have places where they could freely hold political meetings. The opening in Manchester of the first Victorian Turkish bath in England, some time around 12 July 1857, was proudly announced in the Free Press papers. Urquhart had helped finance its building in part of the Broughton Lane home of FAC member William Potter who managed, and later owned it. From

1067-510: A luxurious set of what was unashamedly called Roman-Irish baths with appropriate credit being given to Dr Barter. The Frederic Baths, together with others in Munich and Wiesbaden (opened in 1901 and 1913 respectively) are still open, and have also become tourist attractions in their own right. Victorian Turkish baths were provided for the general public by individual entrepreneurs, limited liability companies, and local authorities. Exact percentages of

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1164-668: A manuscript book on the attractions and amusements of Llandudno. In 1858, Dr John Le Gay Brereton, father of the Australian poet and critic of the same name, was visiting physician at the FAC Turkish baths in Bradford's Leeds Road, one of the first in England. In 1859 he emigrated to Australia, almost immediately taking a lease on Captain Cook's Hotel in Spring Street, Sydney, and converting it into

1261-499: A promotional film made for them in the 1930s. Although many British bathers prefer bathing in the Turkish bath without costumes, or just loosely covered with a towel, nudity in local authority baths is now rare, even in single sex sessions. However, a few local authorities and private members' clubs hire their Turkish baths to local naturist clubs where nude bathing is the rule. Whether costumed or not, bathers normally cover seating with

1358-435: A series of three hot rooms of varying temperature, marble slabs for massage and body scrubbing and an icy plunge pool. In addition there are two relaxation areas. The swimming pool is 100 feet (slightly over 30 metres) long. There is a small sauna next to the pool, as well as a well equipped modern gym located within the building. There is also a communal laundry facility (launderette) in the building. Extensive renovations to

1455-529: A smaller establishment in Joté Street as early as 1863. The baths were refurbished on several occasions and were still in operation in 1911. Many of the larger cities had at least one Turkish bath during the following decades, with the English-speaking cities, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria each having several. David Urquhart's influence was also felt outside the Empire when in 1861, Charles H Shepard opened

1552-579: A source of revenue for the upkeep of other institutions such as mosques. In the 11th century the Seljuk Empire conquered much of Anatolia from the Byzantine Empire , eventually leading to the complete conquest of the remnants of the old empire in the 15th century. During those centuries of war, peace, alliance, trade and competition, these intermixing cultures (Eastern Roman, Islamic Persian and Turkic ) had tremendous influence on each other. Later

1649-558: A strong Eastern Roman bath culture, with the Baths of Zeuxippus constituting one early example. Ottoman architects expanded on the experience of Byzantine architects to create particularly well-balanced designs with greater symmetry and regularity in the arrangement of space than could be seen in hammams in other parts of the Muslim world. Some of the city's oldest monumental hammams are the Tahtakale Hamam (probably built right after 1454),

1746-642: A towel before sitting or lying down. This also helps protect against accidental burns from seats which have been vacant for some time. Two people were primarily responsible for the introduction of the Victorian Turkish bath into the 19th century's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: Scottish diplomat and sometime MP for Stafford, David Urquhart (1805–1877), and Irish physician and hydropathist (an early hydrotherapist ), Richard Barter (1802–1870), founder and proprietor of St Ann(e)'s Hydropathic Establishment near Blarney, Co. Cork. Urquhart came across

1843-450: A woman or a man can make someone included or excluded. Therefore, they represent a departure from the public sphere in which one is physically exposed amongst other women or men. This declaration of sexuality merely by being nude makes hammams a site of gendered expression. One exception to this gender segregation is the presence of young boys who often accompany their mothers until they reach the age of five or six when they switch to attending

1940-639: Is a requirement of Islam, though immersion in a pool used to be customary in the hammams of some regions such as Iran . While hammams everywhere generally operate in fairly similar ways, there are some regional differences both in usage and architecture. The word "hammam" ( حَمَّام ) is a noun meaning "bath", "bathroom", "bathhouse", "swimming pool", etc. derived from the Arabic triconsonantal root H-M-M ( ح م م ) which yields meanings related to heat or heating. From Arabic حمّام , it passed on to Persian ( حمام ) and Turkish ( hamam ). In English,

2037-487: Is also required before or after sexual intercourse. Knowing that, May Telmissany , a professor at the University of Ottawa , argues that the image of a hyper-sexualised woman leaving the hammam is an Orientalist way of looking at things that sees leaving or attending the hammam as an indicator of sexual behaviour. Most hammams expect their clients to undress down to a modesty garment or loincloth , before proceeding from

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2134-457: Is free of charge'. Shampooing was not included and cost an additional sixpence. Between 1859 and 1869, Barter, or companies associated with him, built nine other baths in Ireland, while at least forty others are known to have been in existence as standalone establishments at some time during the following hundred years. There are no longer any Turkish baths in Ireland today. Back in England, Urquhart

2231-615: Is not known which Victorian Turkish bath was the first in Germany, but the first of any size and importance was the Friedrichsbad in Baden-Baden, opened soon after the Paris Hammam. Grand Duke Frederic of Baden had originally wanted a spa grand enough to compete with others ensuring that, in their use of the hot waters, the baths 'should surpass those known hitherto, and be in accordance with all

2328-630: Is one of the Five Pillars of Islam and it is customary to perform ablutions before praying. The two Islamic forms of ablution are ghusl , a full-body cleansing, and wudu , a cleansing of the face, hands, and feet. In the absence of water, cleansing with pure soil or sand is also permissible. Mosques always provide a place to wash, but hammams are often located nearby for deeper cleansing. Many are actually part of mosque complexes. Hammams, particularly in Morocco, evolved from their Roman origins to meet

2425-527: The Indian subcontinent , and in Southeastern Europe under Ottoman rule . In Islamic cultures the significance of the hammam was both religious and civic: it provided for the needs of ritual ablutions but also provided for general hygiene in an era before private plumbing and served other social functions such as offering a gendered meeting place for men and for women. Archeological remains attest to

2522-643: The Kılıç Ali Pasa Hamamı and the Hürrem Sultan Hamamı being renovated and returned to their original function, while others were abandoned or repurposed. In Morocco, many hammams continue to serve locals in historic cities such as Fes and Marrakesh , where they are especially useful to the urban poor residing in the old cities ( medina s). In many other regions, however, hammams have become obsolete and have either been abandoned or converted to other uses. In Iran, some baths continue to operate in

2619-651: The Mahmut Pasha Hamam (built in 1466), and the Bayezid II Hamam (built some time between 1500 and 1507). The monumental hammams designed by the 16th-century Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan (1489–1588), such as the Çemberlitaş Hamamı , the Süleymaniye Hamam (in the complex of the Süleymaniye Mosque ), and the Haseki Hürrem Sultan Hamam , are major examples of hammams that were built later in

2716-518: The Mediterranean world. They remained important in the cities of the early Byzantine Empire up to around the mid-6th century, after which the construction of new bathhouses declined and existing ones were gradually abandoned. Following the expansion of Arab Muslim rule over much of the Middle East and North Africa in the 7th and 8th centuries, the emerging Islamic societies were quick to adapt

2813-1005: The Ottomans became prolific patrons of hammams. Since they were social centres as well as baths, they were built in almost every city across their European, Asian, and African territories. The Ottomans were thus responsible for introducing hammams to much of eastern and central Europe, where many still exist today in various states of restoration or disrepair. Such Turkish baths are found as far as Bosnia and Herzegovina , Greece , and Hungary . Many early Ottoman hammams survive in Bursa and Edirne , as well as in Eastern Europe and Anatolia , but hammams became even more numerous and architecturally ambitious in Constantinople (Istanbul) , thanks to its royal patronage, its large population and its access to plentiful water. The city's Greek inhabitants had retained

2910-672: The Sheffield Free Press , a paper owned for a while by local politician Isaac Ironside, who led the Sheffield FAC. After Ironside had, at Urquhart's suggestion, visited St Ann's for his own health, the paper, and its later London version The Free Press , also acted (from 29 March 1856) as a means of communication about Turkish baths. Letters to both papers on St Ann's and on the progress of its Turkish bath were published, and were of great interest to many FAC members. Urquhart encouraged them to start Turkish baths to provide themselves with

3007-463: The sudatorium (the hottest), the tepidarium , and the frigidarium (cooling-room). Even while experiments were continuing, Barter was promoting the bath throughout Ireland. On 17 March 1859, he opened the first Turkish bath in the country to be built for use by the general public at 8 Grenville Place, in nearby Cork. There were separate baths for men and women at a cost of one shilling. Children under ten paid half price and 'A servant attending

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3104-415: The 'exotic' hot-air baths of earlier times. In a Victorian Turkish bath, bathers relax in a series of increasingly hot dry rooms, usually two or three, until they sweat profusely. This progression can be repeated, interspersed with showers, or a dip in a cold plunge pool. It is then followed by a full body wash and massage, together called shampooing. Finally, no less important, is a period of relaxation in

3201-488: The 'well-known and long-established' Victoria Baths at 106 West Nile Street, announced his intention to convert 'a large part of the establishment' into a Turkish bath. By 22 September, the new baths were open with two hot rooms, a cooling-room, a variety of showers and dressing rooms. There was only a single class of baths, with Wednesday mornings set aside for ladies. Hydropathic establishments in Scotland were quick to follow

3298-531: The 10th century many places started to provide separate hours (or separate facilities) for men and women. The hammam then took on an important role in women's social life as one of the few public spaces where they could gather and socialise apart from men. Some hammams were privately owned or formed parts of palaces and mansions, but in many cases they were civic or charitable institutions which formed part of larger religious/civic complexes. Such complexes were governed by waqf agreements, and hammams often acted as

3395-542: The 2012 refurbishment. From just after the Second World War until the new complex at Crystal Palace was built in the late 1960s, the baths were the home of the world-famous Highgate Diving Club , who held their club night there every Friday and also met during the public sessions on Saturday mornings. The Olympic diver, Brian Phelps (winner of the bronze medal for highboard diving in the 1960 Olympics ) trained there regularly with his coach, Wally Orner, as did many of

3492-425: The 20th century. A massage in a hammam is likely to involve not just vigorous muscle kneading, but also joint cracking - "not so much a tender working of the flesh as a pummelling, a cracking of joints, a twisting of limbs". Hammams aiming for a tourist clientele are likely to also offer an array of different types of massage similar to what might be offered in a spa. Arab hammams are gendered spaces where being

3589-531: The 21st century, there are very few Victorian Turkish bath buildings extant, and fewer still remain open. The Victorian Turkish bath is a type of hot-air bath which originated in Ireland in 1856. It was specifically identified as such in the 1990s and then named and defined to necessarily distinguish it from the baths which had for centuries, especially in Europe, been loosely, and often incorrectly, called "Turkish baths". These were usually Islamic hammams , but during

3686-531: The Baths and Washhouses Act 1846. They were also to be found in hotels, hydropathic establishments (hydros) and hospitals, in the Victorian asylum and the Victorian workhouse, in the houses of the wealthy, in private members' clubs, and in ocean liners for those travelling overseas. They were even provided for farm animals and urban workhorses. Some establishments provided additional facilities such as steam rooms and, from

3783-556: The British Isles. Victorian Turkish baths have been identified in thirty-one of the country's then forty-five states without any known specific search having been made. So there is no reason to suppose that the remaining fourteen states were without them. Of these fourteen, Alaska, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, and Texas, are known to have had several each after the beginning of the 20th century. The first Victorian Turkish bath in France

3880-538: The Islamic hammam while serving in the Ottoman Empire in the 1830s. He described the system of relatively dry hot-air baths used in Morocco and Turkey, which had changed little since Roman times, in his travel book The Pillars of Hercules , and became an enthusiastic advocate of the bath for the remainder of his life. Barter had already been using vapour baths at St Ann's, and when, in 1856, he read Urquhart's description of

3977-574: The Muslim world, with hammams appearing as far west as Volubilis (itself a former Roman colony) in Morocco during the Idrisid period (late 8th to early 9th centuries). Historical texts and archeological evidence also indicate the existence of hammams in Cordoba and other cities of al-Andalus in the 8th century. In Iran , which did not previously have a strong culture of public bathing, historical texts mention

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4074-670: The Urquhartite stronghold of Newcastle, where a bath was installed at the Newcastle upon Tyne Infirmary, and simultaneously down through the Midlands, another area with many FACs, until they reached London, where Roger Evans opened the first in Bell Street, near Marble Arch, in 1860. It is not known for certain when the first Turkish bath opened in Scotland. In Glasgow, two opened within months of each other in 1860. Peter Jack claimed to have opened

4171-481: The Victorian Turkish bath is to expose the surface of the body—the pores of the skin—to the hot dry air, the European practice of bathing naked is the most effective one, and costumes are prohibited for hygienic reasons. This, as explained in numerous brochures for Turkish baths and saunas, is because the typical short shower neither removes sweat from a bathing costume before entering the pool, nor any pool chemicals from

4268-413: The appropriate forms of conduct for many aspects of Muslim life and death. One of the volumes, entitled The Mysteries of Purity , details the proper technique for performing ablutions before prayer and the major ablution ( ghusil ) after anything which renders it necessary, such as the emission of semen. For al-Ghazali, the hammam is a primarily male institution, and he cautions that women should only enter

4365-564: The bath should be named. Because it was based on the baths of the ancient Romans and not on the Islamic hammam, many argued that it should be called the Roman bath, or the Irish-Roman or Anglo-Roman bath. Some bath proprietors felt strongly about this and named their baths accordingly. But the new baths finally became known as Turkish baths because, for many years, that is where western travellers had first come across, and frequently written about,

4462-405: The bathhouse to their own needs. Its importance to Muslim society lay in the religious requirement to perform ablutions ( wudu and ghusl ) before praying and because of the general Islamic emphasis on physical and spiritual purity , although the scholar Mohammed Hocine Benkheira has argued that hammams were not in fact necessary for religious purposes in early Islam and that this relationship

4559-456: The beginning of the 19th century but only eight were still in business by the start of the 21st century, with many others abandoned or neglected. In the former European territories of the Ottoman Empire such as Greece and the Balkans , many hammams became defunct or were neglected in modern times, although some have now been restored and turned into historic monuments or cultural centres. Prayer

4656-524: The beginning, separate sessions for women were supervised by his wife Elizabeth. Around England, Urquhart's FACs, regularly brought up-to-date by the Free Press papers, were responsible for starting at least thirty Turkish baths. Except in Ireland, where Barter was the main influence, the FAC members and their baths soon inspired others to start opening them. In this, as in all work with the FACs, Urquhart's wife Harriet

4753-688: The club's international and Olympic divers, such as John Chandler, John Cooze, John Miles, Billy Wood, and Alun Roberts. It was listed grade II in November 2006 and is located within St. Luke's Conservation Area . Islington Local History Centre holds plans, photographs and commemorative material related to Ironmonger Row Baths. Victorian Turkish baths Hot-air baths of the same type, built after Queen Victoria 's reign (1837–1901), are known as Victorian-style Turkish baths , and are also covered in this article. The Victorian Turkish bath became popular during

4850-549: The cooling-room, preferably for at least an hour. There is no standard prescribed route through the rooms of a Victorian Turkish bath, though some establishments may recommend one, while some others are physically arranged so that a standard route seems to be predetermined, as in the baths built by the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell in Old Kent Road. Some bathers prefer to start in the hottest room and work towards

4947-407: The cooling-room; others never venture into the hottest room and prefer to start with the coolest and work their way into hotter areas. Once acclimatised, bathers usually go back and forth as they wish, but it is considered important always to end with a rest in the cooling-room. Bathers should never remain in a Turkish bath if they feel the slightest bit dizzy or uncomfortable. Since the purpose of

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5044-511: The corporation's Turkish baths were built for a single class of user, unlike those in England and Wales where the Public Baths & Wash-houses Acts mandated two classes, their relative sizes, and their charges. The first Welsh Turkish baths were small, opening in 1861 in Brecon and Tredegar. Again, it is not clear which was the first to open. The earliest newspaper account so far found suggests that

5141-443: The different types cannot be determined since it is impossible to know how many such baths have existed. But one survey of nearly 500 baths known (in 2012) to have existed in the British Isles suggests that around 70% were owned by individuals, partnerships, or closed companies; 12% by public companies; and 18% by local authorities. Hammam A hammam ( Arabic : حمّام , romanized :  ḥammām ), also often called

5238-438: The dryness of the heated air. This was the first Victorian Turkish bath, known today in Europe as the Irish-Roman bath in honour of Barter and his architect—also coincidentally named Richard Barter , though they were not related. Barter's first successful bath at St Ann's was formally opened on 11 May 1858, though it had already been in use for some time, while still in the process of being improved. The three main rooms were

5335-511: The entire building were carried out between May 2010 and December 2012. A fire in December 2021 destroyed one of the restored saunas and caused damage to the basement of the building. The facility operates numerous programs, including a branch of the Tom Daley Diving Academy . The baths were designed by architects AWS & KMB Cross, built in 1931, and extended in 1938. They have been managed by Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) since

5432-546: The era of classical Ottoman architecture . When Sultan Mustafa III issued a decree halting the construction of new public baths in the city in 1768, it seems to have resulted in an increase in the number of private hammams among the wealthy and the elites, especially in the Bosphorus suburbs where they built luxurious summer homes. In Iran, many examples of hammams survive from the Safavid period (16th–18th centuries) onward, with

5529-489: The everyday interactions of Moroccans in the hammam. Staats argues that hammams are places where women can feel more at ease than in many other public interactions. In addition, in his work Sexuality in Islam, Abdelwahab Bouhdiba cites the hammam as a place where homosexual encounters in general can take place. He notes that some historians found evidence of hammams as spaces for sexual expression among women, which they believed

5626-413: The existence of bathhouses in the 10th century as well as the use of hot springs for therapeutic purposes; however, there has been relatively little archeological investigation to document the early presence and development of hammams in this region. Muslims retained many of the main elements of the classical bathhouses while leaving out functions which were less relevant to their practices. For example,

5723-488: The existence of bathhouses in the Islamic world as early as the Umayyad period (7th–8th centuries) and their importance has persisted up to modern times. Their architecture evolved from the layout of Roman and Greek bathhouses and featured a regular sequence of rooms: an undressing room , a cold room , a warm room , and a hot room . Heat was produced by furnaces which provided hot water and steam , while smoke and hot air

5820-462: The extent that pertained in England, but there were exceptions. Dunfermline Burgh Corporation took over a privately owned baths establishment at West Protection Wall in 1870 and three years later planned major extensions and the addition of Turkish baths. These were open by September 1876. A year later, the corporation opened swimming and Turkish baths in Schoolend Street. These were paid for by

5917-534: The first Turkish baths in the United States at 63 Columbia Street, Brooklyn Heights, NY, most probably on 3 October 1863. It was not a purpose-built establishment, but Shepard added a four-room Turkish bath to his three-storey hydropathic establishment. This was so successful that he had to enlarge it within ten months. Three years later, a new set of baths was opened next door and the original baths were converted for use by women. When Shepard's bath opened, Brooklyn

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6014-647: The first nine months, and plans were already being drawn up for the much larger establishment which opened on 16 March 1861 in Bligh Street. Melbourne's first Turkish bath opened in Lonsdale Street in 1860, and by the end of the 1860s there were baths in all the major Australian cities, including Hobart in Tasmania. New Zealand's first Victorian Turkish bath was set up by the Otago Turkish Bath Company in

6111-464: The first of these was built in part of the home of a former collier, Daniel Jones, who made his bath available to locals suffering from rheumatism and infections of the chest. But a couple of months later there is a long account of a visit to the Turkish bath at an unnamed location in Brecon, staffed by a Mr Davies and owned by a Dr Williams who is described as 'the pioneer in the Principality'. Neither of these baths seems to have survived for long. But

6208-489: The first some time in June and this seems to have been a small one with a single hot room, at 366 Argyll Street. But by the end of December his baths had been 'entirely re-constructed' and had three hot rooms. Although the Public Baths and Wash-houses Acts did not apply in Scotland, Jack's Roman or Turkish Baths provided first and second class baths, as many commercial Turkish baths were to do in England. Both classes also had Ladies' days. In mid-September, Mr P Tracy, lessee of

6305-484: The following year, 1862, saw the opening of a major Turkish bath in Cardiff and within a few years this was followed by baths at Merthyr Tydfil (1866), Llandudno, Neath, and Newport (all in 1864), and others as the century moved on. While some of the smaller Welsh baths may not have remained open for very long, the Llandudno bath during its three-year life managed to inspire Richard Greene, a local artist and writer, to produce an amusing series of sketches which became part of

6402-410: The hammam experience such as jewel boxes, gilded soap boxes, mirrors, metal henna bowls, perfume bottles and nalın (wooden or mother-of-pearl clogs that prevented slipping on the wet floor) can now only be seen in museums. Traditionally, the bathhouse masseurs ( Turkish : tellak ) were young men who soaped and scrubbed their clients. However, the tellaks were replaced by adult attendants during

6499-466: The hammam he was, 'electrified; and resolved, if possible, to add that institution to [his] establishment'. He realised that the human body can tolerate a higher temperature when exposed to dry air than it can when exposed to vapour. Believing that a higher temperature increased the curative effectiveness of the bath, he invited Urquhart to St Ann's, offering him 'land, workmen, and materials', to help him build one for his patients. Their first attempt, in

6596-480: The historic city of Isfahan in particular containing many examples. The spread of Muslim rule in the Indian subcontinent also introduced hammams to this region, with many examples surviving in Mughal architecture (16th–19th centuries). Hammams continued to be a vital part of urban life in the Muslim world until the early 20th century when the spread of indoor plumbing in private homes rendered public baths unnecessary for personal hygiene. This has resulted in

6693-481: The historic districts of cities like Isfahan where they continue to serve religious functions, but there is an overall decline in their numbers. Many surviving Iranian examples have been converted to other uses, most notably as restaurants and teahouses . In Damascus , Syria , only thirteen hammams were still operating in 2004, mostly in the old city; many others had been either demolished or repurposed. Cairo in Egypt contained an estimated 77 operational hammams at

6790-442: The hydros in mind, Allshorn emphasised in his advertisements that the baths were 'Under Medical Superintendence'. Known as the Edinburgh Roman or Turkish Bath, the cooling-room and three hot rooms were all called by their Roman names. Edinburgh and Glasgow soon had a number of other Turkish baths, in addition to those opening in many other cities and towns in Scotland. Scottish local authorities never became Turkish bath providers to

6887-478: The inaccurate term "Turkish bath" is also used to refer to hammams. This stems from the tendency of historical Western writers to conflate ethnic and religious terms by referring to Muslims as "Turk" and because they presented hammams largely as an Ottoman cultural feature. The first recorded use of the term 'Turkish bath' in English was in 1644. Public bathhouses were a prominent civic and urban institution in Roman and Hellenistic culture and were found throughout

6984-506: The large Portobello public baths building facing the sea. These baths currently remain open. Finally, at the other end of the provision scale, Glasgow Corporation included a small Turkish baths for eight bathers in its Gallowgate Public Baths in 1902. This was followed by larger ones in the Govanhill baths in 1917, and in three other baths—Pollokshaws, Shettleston, and Whiteinch, all in 1926. Although there were two classes of hot water baths, all

7081-469: The latter part of the 20th century, steam and vapour baths of various types also came to be included. This general term, "Turkish baths", has also been used to describe women's baths in the Ottoman harem, most famously by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and as the title—or as the supposed subject—of orientalist paintings . When the first Victorian Turkish baths were being built, there was much discussion about how

7178-602: The latter third of the queen's reign, and retained this popularity during the Edwardian years (1901–1914), first as a therapy and a means of personal cleansing, and then as a place for relaxation and enjoyment. It was very soon copied in several parts of the British Empire, in the United States of America, and in some western European countries. Victorian Turkish baths were opened as small commercial businesses, and later by those local authorities that saw them as being permitted under

7275-500: The local and international high society. In this it succeeded, its regular bathers including Léon Gambetta, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the Prince of Wales, the Baron de Rothschild, and many of those famous in the world of the arts. It remained open until 1954 before being converted into offices. Today only the façade remains, with its numerous westernised horseshoe windows, arches, and grilles. It

7372-424: The male hammam with their fathers. Women's hammams play a special role in society. Valerie Staats finds that the women's hammams of Morocco serve as a social space where traditional and modern women from urban and rural areas of the country come together, regardless of their religiosity, to bathe and socialise. The bathing regulations laid down by al-Ghazali and other Islamic intellectuals are not usually upheld in

7469-417: The need to avoid touching the penis during bathing and after urination, and wrote that nakedness was decent only when the area between a man's knees and lower stomach was hidden. For women he suggested that only exposure of the face and palms was appropriate. According to al-Ghazali, nakedness in the hammam could incite indecent thoughts and behaviours, hence its controversial nature. In Islam ritual ablution

7566-490: The needs of ritual purification according to Islam. For example, in most Roman-style hammams, there was a cold pool for submersion of the body, a style of bathing that finds less favour with Islam which regards bathing under running water without being fully submerged more appropriate. Al-Ghazali , a prominent Muslim theologian of the 11th century, wrote Revival of the Religious Sciences , a multi-volume work discussing

7663-418: The preserve mainly of tourists there is more likelihood that women will bathe naked. Some hammam complexes contain separate sections for men and women; elsewhere men and women are admitted at different times in which case the hours for women are usually far more limited than those for men. Traditionally hammams, especially those for women, doubled as places of entertainment with dancing and food being shared. It

7760-455: The progression from cold room to hot room was maintained, but it was no longer common practice to take a plunge in cold water after leaving the hot room, nor was exercise incorporated into bathing culture as it was in classical gymnasiums . Likewise, Muslim bathers usually washed themselves in running water rather than immersing themselves in standing water. Although in early Islamic history women did not normally patronise hammams, by around

7857-471: The requirements of modern balneo-therapeutics'. Planning started in 1867 but work was delayed by water supply problems and the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). District-Architect Karl Dernfeld and the spa's medical officer Carl Frech took time to visit other baths in Germany and elsewhere to help them develop their plan. When the baths opened on 15 December 1877, the original spa had been complemented by

7954-420: The second half of the 20th century, Finnish saunas . These complemented the Turkish bath, but were not part of the Turkish bath process, any more than were the services of, for example, the barber, chiropodist, or visiting physician who might be available in some 19th-century establishments. The use of Victorian Turkish baths began to decline after World War I, with the decline accelerating after World War II. In

8051-471: The shape of a 'little beehive-shaped thatched building' failed due to its inability to heat the air sufficiently. Urquhart returned to his political work in England but Barter persevered. He sent his architect to Rome to study the ancient Roman baths. On his return, based on what he learned in Rome and the plans and details he brought back, he built a bath at St Ann's differing from the traditional Islamic hammam in

8148-575: The trend, possibly fearing loss of clients to the new standalone baths in the cities. By November 1860, Alex Munro had added a Turkish bath 60-foot (18 m) long to his Lochhead Hydro just outside Aberdeen. And in Edinburgh, Dr James Lawrie advertised the opening, on 15 May 1861, of a Turkish bath to complement the original medicated baths at his Sciennes Hill Hydro. A couple of months later, Edinburgh's first standalone Turkish baths were opened just behind number 90 Princes Street by Dr G E Allshorn. Keeping

8245-434: The use of hammams. These scholars viewed hammams as unnecessary for full-body ablutions ( ghusl ) and questioned whether public bathing spaces could be sufficiently clean to achieve proper purification . They also worried that spaces for collective bathing could become spaces for illicit sexual activity. Nevertheless, this opposition progressively faded and by the 9th century most scholars were no longer interested in debating

8342-552: The validity of hammams, although it continued to be seen with suspicion in some conservative circles. The earliest known Islamic hammams were built in Syria and Jordan during the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) as part of palaces and desert castles at Qusayr 'Amra , Hammam al-Sarah , Qasr al-Hayr al-Sharqi , and Khirbat al-Majfar . Shortly after this period, archaeology reveals the existence of Islamic bathhouses across much of

8439-505: Was a result of the universality of nudity in these spaces. Hammams have also been associated with male homosexuality over the centuries and up to the present day. Features Types Types Features Clothing Genres Art music Folk Prose Islamic Poetry Genres Forms Arabic prosody National literatures of Arab States Concepts Texts Fictional Arab people South Arabian deities The hammam combines

8536-715: Was already a second establishment, the Hammam de Lyon . The first Victorian Turkish bath in Paris opened to the public in March 1876 on the junction of the Rue Neuve des Mathurins and the Rue Auber. The majority of its patrons were men, but certain specific times were set aside for women, who entered through a discreet entrance at 47 Boulevard Haussmann, round the corner. Though called the Paris Hammam, Nebahat Avcıoğlu has convincingly argued that not only

8633-564: Was channeled through conduits under the floor . In a modern hammam visitors undress themselves, while retaining some sort of modesty garment or loincloth , and proceed into progressively hotter rooms, inducing perspiration . They are then usually washed by male or female staff (matching the gender of the visitor) with the use of soap and vigorous rubbing, before ending by washing themselves in warm water. Unlike in Roman or Greek baths, bathers usually wash themselves with running water instead of immersing themselves in standing water since this

8730-440: Was common to visit hammams before weddings or religious holidays, to celebrate births, to swap beauty tips, etc. Women also used visits to the hammam to size up potential wives for their sons. Some accessories from Roman times survive in modern hammams, such as the peştemal (a special cloth of silk and/or cotton to cover the body, like a pareo ) and the kese (a rough mitten used for scrubbing). However, other accoutrements of

8827-523: Was it influenced by baths in Britain, but especially by Urquhart's Jermyn Street baths, opened fourteen years earlier. Designed in a lavish style by architects William Klein and Albert Duclos, the baths included a swimming pool, restaurant and a hairdresser. That shampooing was undertaken by two Englishmen trained at the Jermyn Street baths reinforced the idea that the baths were designed to attract members of

8924-476: Was kept in touch with Barter's progress while he was actively involved in campaigning on behalf of Turkey prior to the Crimean War. He had gathered around himself, particularly in the north of England, groups of mainly working class political followers calling themselves Foreign Affairs Committees (FACs), whose main activities were calling meetings and writing to newspapers. Their political views were promulgated in

9021-632: Was not only the case in commercial Turkish baths but, well into the 20th century, in local authority baths also. Alfred Cross , who designed baths for the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury (Ironmonger Row Baths, 1931) and the Urban District Council of Epsom (1935), had earlier defined the Turkish bath, in his then standard work on public baths and wash-houses, as 'the exposure of the nude body to hot dry air, massaging or shampooing, ablution with warm and cold water, and finally drying and cooling'. In London, Bermondsey Council took nudity for granted in

9118-459: Was not yet part of New York City, so the city's first Turkish bath, opened in 1865 by Drs Eli P Miller and A L Wood, was in Manhattan at 13 Laight Street. Like Urquhart, Shepard was an enthuiastic advocate for the bath, writing several pamphlets, and campaigning for a publicly funded one for the poor. By the end of the 19th century, the bath had spread across the United States just as it had done in

9215-487: Was opened in 1868 by Dr Charles Depraz at Place Grimaldi in Nice. Though known as the Hammam de Nice , Depraz wrote that it followed the pattern of the many perfect baths in England ( 'La distribution de cet établissement a été faite d'après les plans les plus parfaits des nombreux Hammams de l'Angleterre ') The title page of the guide indicates that Depraz was the promoter of a company called Hammams de France , and by 1870 there

9312-489: Was partly assumed by later historians. He suggests that the hammam's initial appeal derived at least in part from its convenience for other services (such as shaving ), from its endorsement by some Muslim doctors as a form of therapy, and from the continued popular appreciation of its pleasures in a region where they had already existed for centuries. He also notes that there was initially strong opposition from many Islamic scholars ( ulama ) , especially Maliki scholars, to

9409-459: Was totally involved. She agreed that the bath at Riverside, their home near Rickmansworth, should be open to all who wished to try it, whether they were his servants, friends or neighbours, local doctors with their patients, FACs wanting information, or their members who were unwell. She kept many sciatic and invalid guests over for breakfast. 'Some days there were as many as twenty-five people using it.' From Manchester, Turkish baths spread north to

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