Turkish baths in Scotland

Aberdeen Turkish baths

Very little is known about this establishment  apart from its opening date, its proprietor, and a sketchy outline of its facilities.

When the baths were opened—the first in Aberdeen—they were stated to be 'experimental' in the sense that they were installed in a temporary wooden building which had previously been a photographic studio. It was intended to replace this later with more substantial premises.

Initially, the baths comprised a waiting room, Dr Johnstone's consulting room for those who wanted medical advice, a changing room, and a variety of baths and showers to meet bathers' requirements. These included, apart from the Turkish baths,

'a hot plunge, spray bath, wave bath, sitz bath, medicated bath, vapour bath, cold plunge, rain bath, douche bath, fountain spray, or any of the others that an epicurean hydropathist may choose to indulge in.'

The baths were open from 7.00 till 9.00, 10.00 till 2.00, and 5.00 till 9.00, and it may be that the baths were open for women bathers at the noontime session.

These temporary baths closed some time during 1879 when the permanent baths were opened a few blocks away at 1 Bath Street.