The new wash baths of 1900
A lengthy article was published in the Cheltenham Examiner on 12 September 1900 after the opening of the much-improved Montpellier Baths and this, together with a ground floor plan, tells us a great deal about the layout of the wash baths despite a total lack of photographic evidence from the time. Further details can also be obtained from an article in the Cheltenham Chronicle of 15 September. However some of the photos of the medical baths in 1915, 1920 and 1924 clearly show that much of the decoration described below survived well into the 1920s.
Ground floor
There were seven rooms available for first class patrons – three bath rooms and four dressing rooms.
Bath room number one was a combined bathing and dressing room, lined with Devonshire marble slabs with strips of white statuary marble in between, emphasising the colour of the main slabs while giving the effect of courses of masonry. It contained both a standard slipper bath made of solid nickel and a separate shower or spray bath which could be controlled by the bather without the assistance of an attendant as at many other bathing establishments.
Bath rooms number two and three were similarly lined but with darker marble slabs and were described as being of the ‘Roman’ type. The only real difference between them was that number two had a window in a wall at one end while number three had a skylight in the ceiling. The bath in both did not stand on the floor but was sunk into it and was of a clover leaf design allowing a bather descend via six white Sicilian marble steps at one end and then choose between several different ledges to sit on, thereby determining the depth of immersion into the water that suited them. The walls of the baths were of white mosaic and the moulded kerb surrounding it was alabaster.
There were two dressing rooms connected with each of these sunken bath rooms, one on either side; as one bather left the bath and closed the door to his or her dressing room, the bather from the other dressing room was able to enter the bath. Both dressing rooms had walls panelled in white enable with a border above of ‘particularly aesthetic paper’ and divided from the corridor by cathedral-tinted glass and silk curtains. The first class rooms were connected by two corridors of terrazzo floors and also had access to the small swimming bath room.
A door for the use of staff then separated this part of the ground floor with the third class rooms. There were six wash rooms – three slipper baths and three shower/spray baths – each with two connected dressing rooms in the same style as the first class but much smaller and more plain; there were no fires or radiators, the rooms were merely heated by steam pipes that ran along the walls. There was, of course, no Chippendale furniture and cheap mats used in place of rugs and the initial charge of fourpence also included soap, towels and even loofahs.
First floor
The extra first class baths were obviously nearest the lift and strongly resembled the downstairs accommodation. Room number one was a combined bath/dressing room with a slipper bath (positioned against a wall) containing a recess at one end with a nickel attachment to provide shower, douche or wave. Rooms two and four were dressing rooms either side of room number three which contained a freestanding slipper bath in the centre of the room made of solid nickel with marble slabs and top. They were furnished with rugs, an easy chair, a table and mirror, and a Chippendale chair treated with pergamoid which is impervious to damp.
There were just three second class rooms, all combined bath/dressing rooms, each containing a porcelain slipper bath with Japanese lacquered tops. These rooms were numbered six, seven and eight, and were at the furthest end of a corridor with an oak parquet floor. The walls were tiled to about half their height, one in buff, one in peacock blue, and one in a shade of green, with the wall above painted in similar tones. They were furnished with rugs, a dressing table, mirror and chair.
There was one other room, number five, but no mention is made of what this was used for which it would have been if it was for public use. It is likely to have been either a store room for towels etc and/or somewhere for attendants to wait until called for by a series of pneumatic bells.
Unfortunately no floor plan of the first floor survives from this time. All rooms upstairs were heated by steam radiators, with gas fires in the dressing rooms.
Charges
Upon opening, the charge for a first class bath was two shillings, a second class bath one shilling and a third class bath four pence, although the Cheltenham Examiner thought the latter was ‘rather a high charge’; clearly the management disagreed, as eight months later they increased the third class fees.
The reception or waiting room
This room – for first and second class use – was created by sweeping away two waiting rooms, a WC, two stores, an office and an unlabelled area that was clearly more than a store as it contained a fireplace. These had themselves been adapted in 1870 from an office, three bath rooms, and a kitchen, all of which had likely been there since 1847.
This is the view that would have greeted you once you came through a door from a small entrance lobby and it’s a great pity that no one thought to hand colour this photo at the time so that we could appreciate its full garishness. It was still (just) the Victorian era and the notion that ‘less is more’ was an alien concept. The dark skirting was topped with a low dado of Japanese leather in red and gold while immediately above was a bold floral pattern in sage greens. The vertical columns were ‘Indian red’ – and the photography suggests this was very dark indeed – while above the horizontal framings (also red) was a frieze of yellow and green with dashes of warm tints. The ceiling was papered in shades of yellow and the semi-circular alcoves were also painted a pale yellow. This colour scheme was, astonishingly, described as ‘graceful and comforting’ and the decoration ‘harmonious’.
The door seen in the alcove at the far end led directly to the corridor of first class baths while a second door further to the right (not visible) led to a very small room – little more than a cupboard – for the service of refreshments for those customers patiently waiting for their bath in one of the comfy chairs amid the many potted palms. Astonishingly, the price of tea and biscuits was six pence, tuppence more than the cost of a third class shower bath; this was reduced to three pence in May 1903.
Also not visible are the three large stained glass windows on the right hand side of the room which were the result of a site meeting by the Town Improvement Committee back in September 1899. They agreed that ‘leaded lights be put in the windows of the reception room with the Arms of the Borough thereon, at a minimum cost of 6s 6d per foot, and an estimated total additional cost of from £30 to £35’. Just one week later the borough surveyor was able to show the Committee the designs he had been able to obtain and they chose those submitted by Arthur J Dix whose London studio was connected with one of the most infamous hoaxes of all time.
The overall design for the three windows which cost £30 is fairly unremarkable and less elaborate than his beautiful work that can be found in churches up and down the country (no doubt due to the low budget provided). These are almost certainly the work of someone other than Dix, possibly an apprentice, as he was known for manufacturing the work of others; he generally signed his own work and ours are unsigned.
At the side opposite the stained-glass windows were two doors made of walnut, one with a hatch for the purchase of tickets and the other giving access to the small hydraulic lift, capable of conveying three people to the new first floor. The floor was made of terrazzo although much of it was covered by thick Turkish carpet which meant that a rather charming flower mosaic design in the centre of the floor went unseen.
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