Carlisle council has just voted to close the city’s Edwardian municipal Turkish baths “temporarily”, pending a possible refurbishment and reopening. If they do reopen, it will not be in their current form: £7.10 entry, cheap enough to be a regular weekly event for many residents. The best-case scenario is that they end up like my local, Harrogate baths: privately owned, with “pamper yourself” packages and Himalayan salt scrubs. Entry here is £20 at the cheapest times, making this a treat rather than a habit for most.
I’m not complaining. With only a handful of Turkish baths publicly accessible in Britain now, from hundreds at the height of the movement, I’m lucky to have one nearby and goodness, it is beautiful and a worthy treat. The traditional sequence of heated rooms and icy plunge pool are a Victorian gentleman’s Moorish dream – ochre, green and blue glazed brick, marble mosaic floor and dark wood cabins.
