Part of the 'restored' hot room in the Turkish baths at Wightwick Manor, mid-1990s.
Glazed brick covered hot air duct bringing heated air from Constantine's Convoluted Stove in the basement below. At the top of duct is an adjustable metal grille. The two concrete steps down from the cooling-room are not in the original plan and neither the duckboards on the floor nor the slatted double-tier wooden seat are likely to have been part of the original baths. It would have been normal for bathers to walk directly on the tiled floor, perhaps covered with matting, or else using wooden pattens under their feet. In a house of this quality there would most likely have been a single tier marble seat, L-shaped in the original baths.
© Malcolm Shifrin, 1991-2023