Victorian Turkish Baths Picture of the Month for August 2009

Manchester: Openshaw: Ashton Old Road:
Whitworth Public Baths: the Turkish baths, 2008

Whitworth Baths, Manchester: entrance to Turkish baths
< Photo: Mark Davis: The light within from: Exploring the unseen, capturing the forbidden

Very little is so far known about these baths. The baths building itself was designed by the Manchester architect J W Beaumont and was built in 1890 by the executors of the engineering magnate Joseph Whitworth. They were then donated to the Openshaw Local Board and were handed over to Manchester Corporation, with some other baths, when amalgamation of the local boards took place.

It is not known if the building originally had Turkish baths, but the Corporation was certainly advertising them by 1913. Neither is it known when they closed. However, they were still open in 1937 when male and female Turkish baths cost 1/6d, and they probably remained open well into the 1960s, if not later.

The layout of the baths is not known, but the floor and the designs on the wall of the far room are of coloured mosaic tiles while the ceiling seems to be covered in enamelled metal panels.

An evocative image of past glories.

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Mark Davis for allowing us to use his photograph

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