Victorian Turkish Baths Picture of the Month for November 2013

Le Hammam, Paris:
a card from the late 1870s

Obverse of cardReverse of card

This trade card, 115x80mm, illustrated on its reverse in a somewhat unexpected style, is from Le Hammam, Paris, and probably dates from around the time when the baths opened in 1876.

All that remains of the Paris Hammam today

Photo: courtesy Nebahat Avcıoğlu

Not only was this a Victorian Turkish bath rather than an Islamic hammam, but as Nebahat Avcıoğlu convincingly shows in her illustrated account of the bath, 'From The Hammam to Le Hammam', in Turquerie and the politics of representation, 1728–1876 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), the building was much influenced by baths in Britain, and especially by Urquhart’s Hammam at 76 Jermyn Street. Her photograph shows all that remains today, the interior having been converted into offices.

The card is from the collection of the Victorian Turkish Baths Project

This page last updated 01 January 2023


Thank you icon

Nebahat Avcıoğlu, for telling me about these baths, and for her photo showing the outside today

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