Asylums: The Retreat, York:
location of the new gentlemen's lodge and Turkish baths
Click the baths area to see a plan of the Turkish baths suite
On 17 November 1874, a special sub-committee of the asylum's Committee of Management was set up to consider the improvements suggested by Dr John Kitching on his retirement as Superintendent of The Retreat. Dr Robert Baker, his successor, was already in post when its report was presented on 15 December.
The sub-committee recommended building a new single storey Gentlemen’s Lodge with seventeen bedrooms and seventeen sitting rooms adding: ‘the court at the end of these bedrooms would be the best situation for the erection of a Turkish bath, and rooms in which other hydropathic treatment may be administered.’
They further suggested that the new lodge, ‘and probably the erection of the rooms for the new Turkish bath, &c would be the first work to be undertaken, and that these should be completed before any other work is commenced'.
Paul Dryburgh, Archivist, Borthwick Institute for Archives
Alexandra Mould, Archives Assistant, Borthwick Institute for Archives
This page enlarges an image or adds to the information found below:
The Retreat, York
Victorian Turkish Baths: their origin, development, and gradual decline
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