In September 1806, the wealthy London merchant Henry Thompson arrived in town having been gradually and privately buying up large parcels of land. By early 1807 he was building a spa – now Vittoria House in Vittoria Walk – and a small bath house containing six baths, and the first of many medical treatments that were to become an important feature in the 20th Century. That building, originally referred to as Thompson’s Baths and later named the Montpellier Baths, was added to and altered over the decades and is now the Cheltenham Playhouse.
There was also a small laboratory for the manufacture of The Real Cheltenham Salts, a reduction of the spa water to its solid constituents, which were sold to be added back to water and taken for medicinal purposes. Thompson was advertising the sale of these salts as far away as Dublin by 1809 and business proved to be so successful that the laboratory was considerably enlarged by 1818 although a great deal of the process took place in chambers under the current ground floor level.
Henry Thompson died in 1820 and his businesses and property passed to his son Pearson. The premises underwent many refurbishments and improvements throughout the early part of the 19th Century; by 1834 there were 25 assorted wash baths and showers and in 1847 the first sizeable swimming bath was added.
Although other baths existed in the town, most notably Freeman’s, Thompson’s Baths was regarded as a better class of establishment. This was evidenced when in 1828 it received the patronage of the Duke of Wellington – then Prime Minister – who was holidaying in Cheltenham between 15 and 31 August. He visited daily and read the newspapers while in his bath, a special bridge being placed across it to ensure the pages didn’t get wet! Jane Austen visited Cheltenham in 1816 to take the waters to try and improve her failing health; might she, too, have taken a bath here?
At some point a steam mill and bakery were added which made use of the excess energy produced by the boilers involved in the salts manufacturing process. It’s not known when precisely this enterprise began and the earliest surviving reference to it is an advertisement of 1836. Baking was not the only business carried out on the property during this period as there was also a gilder and brewhouse.
A serious flood hit much of the centre of Cheltenham in 1855 and caused significant damage to the property and the businesses there. At the very end of this period the Baths was used as a polling station in a local election.
Click on the drop down menu or links above to read more about the different uses during this period.