Another nostalgia question.
I was watching Quadrophenia last night, and there is a scene where Phil Daniels and Ray Winstone are both having baths in side by side cubicles. There is a row of cubicles, almost like a public toilet, but instead with a bath in each.
I've always wondered exactly what type of establishment they are in. For those of you who don't know the film is set in London in 1965.
Somebody has suggested to be that it what would have been known as Public Baths. I'd originally thought that was just a shortening of Public Swimming Bath, and meant just the Swimming Pool, although I suppose it could have had both the pool and the actual baths.
The other suggestion I have heard is that there it would be a bathhouse. It sounds right, but I am not sure if the term bathhouse only refers to gay bathhouses, or whether it is just that some because used by gay men.
I also though that perhaps it was the case that even as recently as the 60s, some people would not have good bathrooms in their houses, and so would use that kind of establishment.
However, when I have looked on Wikipedia, there is no suggestion that such places would still be operating in the 60s.
Can anyone enlighten me, please?
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...For those of you who don't know the film is set in London in 1965...
London was known for its lidos from the 1930s onwards.
Most had 'associated facilities' which I think included what we would call baths to wash in.
Some have reopened:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lidos_in_the_UK
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Only the suburbs had "lidos" The east end had bathouses, where yes you could have a bath with hot water ( a luxury), some of the bigger bathhouses had a swimming pool.
there were well known public baths at Stepney, Bethnal Green, Stratford, Deptford, and many more
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 25 Feb 11 at 18:17
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...Only the suburbs had "lidos"...
Including that well-known suburb called Hackney. :)
www.hackney.gov.uk/c-londonfields-lido.htm
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>> Including that well-known suburb called Hackney. :)
Yes as you know, hackney was more or less a suburb, with all the playing fields.
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I have recollections of a swimming pool in Hampsted, on the Finchley Road, and they had a section called "Slipper Baths" which I think were for going in and having a private bath with hot water and soap, as opposed to a wallow in a pool of chlorine. I also remember having a full suumer ban from going there as the main pools were thought to be a source of polio.
Quote from a blog on the post-war history of Bolton:-
"One of my fondest memories was going to Moss Street public slipper baths; for those of you who have never heard of such a beast, public slipper baths where a row of cubicles with a very large roll top bath in the middle of each for yes, bathing in.
You'd pay your small fee and go to your very large bath full of lovely hot water and receive your bar of Wright's cold tar soap and towel and enter an oasis of luxury for just a while, a treat even having paid a fortune in world class spas yet to be surpassed."
Penguins, of course, have flipper baths!
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Yes there were public baths operating in the 1960s I can remember Ilford slipper baths which were next to the swimming pool in the high street . Quite a few houses did not have bathrooms, even in the sixties. Many un-modernised Victorian houses still had outside lavatories. Comparitively few people had central heating and the public baths were popular on a Friday evening with working people
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>> Yes there were public baths operating in the 1960s I can remember Ilford slipper baths
>> which were next to the swimming pool in the high street . Quite a few
>> houses did not have bathrooms, even in the sixties. Many un-modernised Victorian houses still had
>> outside lavatories. Comparitively few people had central heating and the public baths were popular on
>> a Friday evening with working people
Interesting. I thought it might be the case that they were a bit of a luxury at a time when indoor plumbing left a little to be desired.
Does anybody know when these facilities were finally shut down? Also, is this why buildings with swimming pools are still sometimes referred to as "public baths" or "swimming baths", because they used to have this kind of bathing facility or, in that context, is the swimming pool itself considered a bath.
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Certainly in my recollection Birmingham City Swimming Baths immediately post war had Slipper Baths. Many houses had no bathroom and the Public Baths were well patronised. The alternative was a galvanised long tin bath, hung outside on a nail in the wall when not in use.
Taken into kitchen and filled with hot water from the coal fired washtub in the corner of the kitchen. Bath itself placed in front of kitchen range. Having bath in these circumstances was something of a public affair. Rarely did you have the single use. If lucky you might get 4th or 5th go. The Slipper baths were a godsend in terms of sngle use with really hot water.
One incident I recall was going in for a swim and being behind two small children with a goat in tow who were having an argument with the ticket lady who was adamant they were not going to use the slipper bath to wash a goat!!!! (This was circa 1946/47)
Happy days long since gone.
Phil I
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when i was about 13 my local cockroach infested swimming pool also had a public bath house that was always busy in the early evenings.
it was fully used until demolition in 1982
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The public baths & swimming pool I worked in as a university holiday job in Pollokshaws in Glasgow in 1973 & 1974 had the swimming pool, a turkish baths, a "steamie" (launderette with large, attendant operated, industrial washing machines, and one set of public baths, for men 3 days a week and women 3 days a week.
There were about a dozen baths in cubicles, don't remember more than 2 or 3 in use at any time but they were certainly in regular use then.
The "steamie" on the other hand was packed most days and was a scary place for a young lad to work, some of these Glasgow wifies were scary.
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What was the alternative?
A tin bath hanging on the outside toilet wall would be hauled into the scullery, and filled with hot water from a kettle.
It took ages to fill and was never really hot, and a pig to empty.
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Me 53. Can still remember as a little tacker the tin bath in front of the fire. How times have changed......................Still use the bath, but can't afford the fire....:0)
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Ordinary Thunderstorms.
Reading the above novel at the moment. It's set in modern day London. There was a scene set in a public bath in Stepney - Does that mean it's still there I wonder ?
The book is pretty weak - but was cheap and makes a change from the more miserable stuff I read about the WW1 and WW2.
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I think stepney baths has been turned int o yuppie apartments.
It was a real hub, used to be dances there and Wrestling // boxing was held there.
You may remember Kent Walton on World of Sport, from Stepney Baths,
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Mick McManus and Jackie Pallo were there too!
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As a schoolboy I was thumbing a lift and Jackie "TV" Pallo picked me up, on his way to Ilford baths for wrestling.
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Did he throw you across the ring against the ropes ?
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No..They were two fools and one submission!
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Mrs Lurcher and I used to use this public bath on the 'odd' occasion in the 1970's
www.flickr.com/photos/secretlondon/2658955265/
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Correction it was Deptford in the book.
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RE: "Certainly in my recollection Birmingham City Swimming Baths immediately post war had Slipper Baths."
Moseley Road Pool still had them a year or two back. I haven't been swimming recently so I don't know if they are still in use.
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Certainly in the late 70's Southampton swimming pool (almost opposite the IoW ferry) had a row of cubicles with decent baths...a welcome treat for hard working truckers after a proper days graft handballing, roping and sheeting....i think the swimming pool is now a hotel.
Then we'd spread two boards over the engine bonnet of the non sleeper cab (from door window ledge to door window ledge) and sleep perched atop, no curtains either but old broadsheet newspaper sufficed...we didn't always have the money for B&B if able find one.
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In the very late fifties I attended an election meeting given by Sir Oswald Mosley in the Latimer Road baths (no longer with us).
Some time in the seventies I attended a performance by the artist Sally Potter in a skating rink/swimming bath in Holloway. Part of the performance consisted of Ms Potter, smiling radiantly, standing on one leg with the other stretched behind her, topless and wearing I think a grass skirt, being towed round the ice by two male skaters. Then she took a lot of garbage out of a pram, put it on the ice and set it on fire.
At that moment the staff, who had been giggling through skylights during the topless bit, vanished abruptly, reappeared, no longer giggling, on ground level, and threw artist and audience out into the street. Most satisfactory, although not high art.
I have never used a baths for its proper intended purpose. Hate that chlorine-and-weewee pong.
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I would pay good money to see that show AC
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I'll let you know if there's a retrospective planned, Zeddo. But might the lady feel that she needed a stand-in for the grass skirt chapter, after all these years?
Perhaps not - she's a fairly stern feminist I believe - but artists can be sensitive to the effects of time. I once saw the writer William Burroughs, at the opening of an exhibition of his shotgun/paint can/old bits of door paintings, being given a melon and a silver felt-tip pen to sign it with by a young female fan. He signed it but didn't give it back, just stood there tossing it gently up and down and thinking. After a minute he added the date before handing the melon back.
The Burroughs paintings were priced at $1,000 a pop. They all sold out at the opening.
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Just found this about Balsall Heath baths if anybody is still interested, "The Second Class slipper baths were in continual use until October 2004"
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Public baths - Iffy
