Description
Book SynopsisVictorian Turkish Baths is the first book to bring to light the hidden history of a fascinating institution – the 600-plus dry hot air baths that sprang up across Ireland, Britain and beyond, in the 19th century.
Malcolm Shifrin traces the bath’s Irish-Roman antecedents, looking at how its origins were influenced by the combination of physician Richard Barter’s hydropathic expertise, and idiosyncratic diplomat David Urquhart’s passion for the hammams of the Middle East.
The book reveals how working-class members of a network of political pressure groups built more than 30 of the first Turkish baths in England. It explores the architecture, technology and sociology of the Victorian Turkish bath, examining everything from business and advertising to sex–real and imagined. This book offers a wealth of wondrous detail – from the baths used to treat sick horses to those for first-class passengers on the Titanic.
Victorian Turkish Baths will appeal to those interested in Victorian social history, architecture, social attitudes to leisure, early public health campaigns, pressure groups, gendered spaces and much else besides. The book is complemented by the author’s widely respected website victorianturkishbath.org, where readers can find a treasure trove of further information.
Trade ReviewRetired librarian, Malcolm Shifrin has here produced a book that is unrivalled in most of its architectural insights and social understanding. It's a really good read ... * Newsletter, Winter-Spring 2016 (01/2016) *
... Malcolm's coverage of the subject is comprehensive ... -- Graham Hudson * The Ephemerist 172, Spring 2016 *
Malcolm Shifrin's Victorian Turkish Baths, an absorbing, scholarly and generously illustrated book, is also an elegy for an almost vanished piece of our social history and architectural heritage. -- Peter Parker * RIBA Friends of Architecture, April 2016 *
... his book is so appealing to the eye and so full of fascinating information that those with a more general interest in the Victorian period, or even the simply curious, will also find it a pleasure to read. -- Jaqueline Banerjee * The Victorian Web, Cercles *
Given his acknowledged expertise on the subject of Turkish Baths, ... it is no surprise that Malcolm Shifrin has produced an excellent text ... -- Dave Day * Social History *
Malcolm Shifrin's magisterial and frequently surprising book charts the rise and fall of the Victorian Turkish bath movement ... Only a handful of Turkish baths survive in their original form and use. A whole world has been lost, but Malcolm Shifrin is to be commended for bringing it back to vivid life. -- Michael Scammell, South Downs National Park Authority * IHBC, Context 144: May 2016 *
... a major act of historical recovery; it is also a true labour of love ... a sumptuous and delightful book, a tribute to Historic England who produced the volume ... Alas, very few Turkish baths remain today. Shifrin is the pre-eminent historian and archaeologist of this phenomenon. The Turkish bath endures at least through his pages. -- Rohan McWilliam * Journal of Victorian Culture *
... the amount of information about the buildings and the processes within them is remarkable, the bibliography is extensive, and the glossary and four separate indices for people, places, users, and subjects are helpful. -- Timothy Brittain-Catlin * Landscape History, Vol 37, Issue 2, 2016 *
Shifrin is very thorough in his examination of the economics and personalities of the Turkish Bath business, but it is in his appreciation of the architecture of these baths that he excels ... It is one of the many virtues of this study that so many delightful photographs are provided ... Shifrin leave no stone unturned in his examination of all available sources, literary and archival. -- Alistair J. Durie, University of Stirling * Industrial Archaeology Review, 38, 2, 146-147, November 2016 *
Table of Contents1. Background to the Victorian Turkish bath
2. Early history of the Victorian Turkish bath
3. Problems and attitudes
4. Victorian Turkish baths for all
5. The world of the bather
6. Victorian Turkish baths in the 21st century
