The Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths took 20 people back in time last weekend with a tour of Carlisle’s historic James Street Baths.
As part of their campaign to save and develop the baths as a Health and Wellbeing Centre, the Friends group organised two tours of the Grade II listed Turkish Baths on Sunday.
The 40-minute tours took the visitors back in time, painting a picture of the James Street area as it was in the 1800s with rows of terraced houses interspersed with mills and factories and overshadowed by the gas works on the banks of the Caldew River.
Kelly and Jayson Bowes were among the first people to book onto the tour.
Kelly, who lives in Currock, said: “Until I saw the campaign on Facebook I had no idea Carlisle even had Turkish Baths! So when I spotted that the friends group were doing a tour I booked me and Jayson on it right away.
“It was really informative but the star of the show is definitely the building. The tiling, stained glass and the heat literally took our breath away. The first thing we did when we got home was go online and book a session, I cannot wait to get in the plunge pool when it’s actually full!”
Visitors heard how the first Public Baths opened in Liverpool in the wake of the 1832 Cholera outbreak, and were designed as a place where working people could go to wash and bathe, and launder their clothes.
A visit to the Liverpool Baths in 1883 by Carlisle Corporation’s Baths Committee, prompted Carlisle’s then leaders to include the provision of slipper baths, vapour baths and showers in addition to swimming pools in their plans for the James Street Public Baths, which opened in 1884.
Chairman of the friends group, Julie Minns, said: “Although always planned as part of the Public Baths, the decision to open and fund the Turkish Baths was beset by political debate and delay. Even the opening was a low key affair and the budget for promotion was only agreed two and half weeks before the Baths opened on 20 September 1909.
“Perhaps those early days were a foreshadowing of the current debate about the funding and retention of these beautiful baths”. She added
Visitors learned about various attempts to close the Baths over the years.
The tour concluded with the Friends group explaining that Carlisle’s Turkish Baths – despite being one of only 12 that remain open to the public – now face the gravest threat of their 112-year history, with the Public Baths that they have always been an integral part of, set to close next year.
The Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths are campaigning for the Public Baths to be developed as a Health and Wellbeing Centre that would see the two original pools kept in use alongside the Turkish Baths, and new therapy and treatment rooms added.
The group also wants to add a restaurant and bar to help boost Carlisle’s night time economy, and encourage tourists to spend the day sampling the therapeutic benefits of Carlisle’s historic baths.
