Built by the Manchester Foreign Affairs Committee with David Urquhart's financial help, these baths were the first Victorian Turkish baths to be opened to the general public. Managed, and then owned by William Potter, with the help of his wife Elizabeth on women's days, the baths opened some time around 12 July 1857. Since city directories were typically postdated to the year following their compilation, this must have been one of the earliest, if not the earliest, display advertisement to draw attention to this new type of bath.