Chapter 10

though by this I do not mean monastic severity of style.

The general air of the frigidarium requires some consideration. It should have an effect of its own, quite distinct from anything else. It should have something of the conservatory in it. It should be richly carpeted, have much woodwork about it, and be pleasant with plants and laden with the murmur of falling waters. It should be light, certainly; cheerful, cool, and airy looking; and as lofty as possible within reason and common sense. The ceiling should be of a light tone. A lantern-light where the light may come in, rather than be seen, and where the vitiated air may go out, is a pleasant and useful addition.

Points for emphasising with a view to ultimate effect are the stairs to hot rooms--if a staircase be needed--the divans or screens for couches, and an ornamental fountain as above described. The staircase may be rendered attractive with bowl newels, and perhaps white marble treads to the stairs. The divans may be rendered things of beauty by designing ornamental, open-work wood partitions, in either an Oriental style or otherwise. It is not easy to make small dwarf partitions, enclosing a couple of couches, look handsome. As a rule, they are of a flimsy and gimcrack order of architecture. They should be made as solid as possible. For effect there is nothing better than prettily-designed divans.

As regards style, I do not see why one method of design should be more suited than another for the bath. Having become popularly known as the "Turkish" bath, an Eastern or Saracenic style has been often adopted in the past. And, inasmuch as such style is essentially an interior style of architecture, there is something to be said on this score. It is, moreover, a style in which surface decoration pertains rather than modelled work, or, at least, the modelling is in very low relief. There is yet ample scope for the display of skill in the design of a bath in an Oriental style, as hitherto such attempts have only been made in a half-hearted manner; and in many smaller commercial baths the unskilful use of the style has vulgarised it to no small extent.[3]

Considering that the old Romans brought the bath to a great pitch of excellence--far, very far, I should be inclined to say, in advance of our present knowledge of the subject--their style of architecture would seem fitted to its design at this day; and for large public baths, larger than any yet erected in this country, one can imagine that a very interesting design could be made in the Roman style, founded on a study of the old baths, and, for the sake of the interest attaching to them, reproducing many of the original mosaics, pictures, details, &c., of the public baths of the time of the Empire. In a like manner in the Moorish style one could obtain a very elegant effect by a careful study of old baths in Eastern countries,[4] drawing, perhaps, some inspiration from the courts of the palaces of the Moors, with their pleasant retired air, for the frigidarium. I have often thought, when looking at the late Owen Jones' splendid model at the Crystal Palace, what an admirable frigidarium the Court of the Lions would make, with its spacious central area, and retired nooks suitable for couches, and its pretty sparkling fountain and green plants, its brilliant colouring, and general cheerfulness of effect. Similarly, in a Roman style, a Pompeian court seems suggestive of the arrangement of a fine frigidarium, with its _cubicula_ for couches, and its central area and fountain.

The above are but theoretical suggestions as to what might be done should the bath make such progress in this country as may necessitate the provision of handsome public baths for the people. In everyday practice there is not a great field for elaborate designing in baths. Although only the Roman and Eastern styles have been mentioned, there can be no manner of reason why an architect should not design his bath in whatsoever style he may please.

I have spoken of the plunge bath as a feature capable of being rendered a thing of beauty. This is in reference as much to its plan as to the materials of the sides and floor, &c. There is no reason why a plunge should always be a plain oblong on plan. It may be of any of the shapes indicated at Fig. 19. Many bathers, especially in warm weather, like to stay some minutes in the plunge, and not go straight through; they may like to swim up and down the bath, and thus require room to turn, and a keyhole plan, such as at A, is suitable, and especially useful where the bather has to return to the end of bath he entered. Another shape is shown at B. In ladies' baths still more margin for novel planning is allowable, as here the true dive seldom pertains. A delicate semi-oval plan, such as that at D, which is much after the pattern of the Roman bath recently discovered at Box, could be employed; or a plain, circular bath with steps around, such as that of the Pompeian _Balneum_, shown at C; or, again, such a plan as that at E, after the classic one at Bognor in Sussex. For inspirations as to the plans of plunge baths, we cannot do better than refer direct to the old Roman remains, either in Italy itself, or in Great Britain and other provinces and colonial dependencies of the old Empire. The Romans were fully alive to the possibilities of the plunge bath as a subject for artistic design, and often produced baths of great beauty.

The flooring and sides of these baths should be of a light tint, and there should always be more or less pure white. Nothing really is better than plain white glazed bricks, with neat joints. With this bottom the water always looks clean when it is clean, and shows contamination when it exists. Marble-mosaic floorings should be chiefly of white tesseræ, any simple patterns being executed in light tints. Delicate tints, such as strawberry, pea green, and peacock blue, look well through the water. The floor of the plunge bath may thus be made very pretty. The sides are best of glazed brickwork, neatly executed, and coping and treads of steps of so-called white marble.

FURNISHING.

The work of the upholsterer in fitting up a Turkish bath comprises the complete furnishing of the cooling room with couches, lounges, ottomans, carpets, mats, and any chairs and tables that may be required, besides the usual furniture common to all rooms. In the sudatory chambers may be required easy chairs of peculiar construction, with stretched canvas seats; in some cases movable wooden benches in lieu of fixed marble-topped ones; and any carpeting, matting, felt for benches, curtains (if any), and Indian matting for dadoes. These are the principal requirements that need consideration, the remaining furnishing of subordinate apartments being, of course, of commonplace and ordinary description. The refreshment department requires possibly a coffee-maker, refrigerator, ice-box, and shelf fittings; but, as a general rule, no arrangements for actual cooking.

The cooling room couches are usually made 6 ft. by 2 ft.; but 6 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. 6 in. is a more liberal allowance. They should be made of polished wood, strongly framed, stuffed with horsehair and covered with a red Turkey twill, as at A, Fig. 21. Where divans are adopted, on the Eastern model, the benches must be framed of wood, permanently fixed, and covered with mattresses kept in their places by a wooden fillet, as Fig. 20. Above the couch thus formed it is well to stretch a dado of Indian matting, affixed above to a moulded rail.

The carpets employed in the cooling room should be soft to the tread. Nothing, of course, equals a Persian or Turkey carpet, and one or the other should be provided when their cost can be afforded. A rich carpet adds greatly to the effect of the room. In cases where a polished wood floor is adopted and shown, soft durable matting or strips of carpet must be placed along any routes, such as from and to the hot rooms and the boot-room, by the sides of couches, to lounges and tables, &c.--anywhere, in fact, where the bather may require to tread. Anything in the nature of fastenings likely, by any possibility, to injure the feet, must be carefully avoided.

A table or two for books, papers, magazines, &c., should be provided in the cooling room. The provision of lounges, &c., must depend upon the design of the room, and whether nooks or angles are available for their accommodation. Little wooden or metal tripod tables must be placed by the heads of the couches (Fig. 21, B).

The chairs in the hot rooms must be designed upon some such lines as at C and D, whereat are shown an iron, and a wooden, framed chair. Beechen frames are best, and the seat formed of rather closely-woven canvas fixed at top and bottom and hanging in a curve. A few of these seats should always be provided in the hot rooms. Movable wooden _benches_ are constructed of beech, oak, or well-seasoned yellow deal, as at E. The head end is best raised as shown. Very carefully-seasoned wood should be employed, for all joinery purposes, in the hot rooms.

In the boot room, the pigeon-holes must not be forgotten, and a cushioned seat, perhaps, for taking off boots and shoes. A shelf or shelves for linen checks is useful in this position.

Sometimes the floor of the calidarium is carpeted all over, but _strips_ of matting or carpet are better. The hot laconicum is best carpeted throughout. The tepidarium should have strips of carpet where the bathers must necessarily tread. In some baths it is the custom to provide, instead of carpet, felt sandals for use in the hot rooms. For similar reasons to the carpeting--the non-conduction of heat--fine white felting is sometimes placed in strips along the marble benches, as at Fig. 20. Of the Indian matting for a portion of the walls above the benches, I have already spoken.

In the shampooing rooms, little blocks of wood shaped as at E, Fig. 5, are required as head-rests. They should be about 12 by 5 by 4 in., and hollowed to fit the head.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 3: I do not know of any building--bath or otherwise, civil or domestic--in this country where the true spirit of Oriental colour decoration has been grasped. One of the chief principles which seems to have been missed is that in real Saracenic art the colours are employed in very small portions only, and no colour becomes insubordinate to the general effect.]

[Footnote 4: Here is a branch of architectural design absolutely unstudied. Few architects visit the East, and none enter the baths there, either in Egypt, Turkey, or Morocco. The ordeal of the true Oriental shampooing doubtless deters the few who might be curious about these buildings.]