The list of things I yearn for and cannot find
in this country is not a long one. But there is
one thing I really miss. I’m also aware that my
efforts to describe it sound a little ... strange,
but here goes: on a basic level what I crave is
communal washing. The sort of thing that
happens in so many other cultures around the
world, be it the Middle Eastern hammam, the
Japanese onsen or the Russian banya.
There are national differences of course: hammams
involve steam, onsens are built around hot springs. The
Russians use ice and bundles of twigs to bring a little
pain into the mix. But the underlying ethos is the same:
a recognition that cleansing the body — and the mind
— is an important part of our health. I don’t know
exactly when I became hooked on this, but I think it
might have been a decade ago, sitting on the floor of a
hammam in Istanbul as a stout Turkish woman washed
my hair. Not even the fact that my then boyfriend’s
mother was somewhere else in the steam could disrupt
the enjoyment of it.
The feeling of being scrubbed by a stranger is infanti-
lising in the very best way. It is the essence of childhood;
a psychologist would have a field day. I appreciate that
the combination of nudity, strangers and sweat is not
everyone’s cup of tea. There is something deeply
un-English about the whole messy business of bodies
that makes us want to keep them safely locked away
behind the bathroom door. But I love the honesty of it,
the anonymity of being just another body on a bench.
Sex does not feature in the sort of places I am talking
about, though I appreciate that in certain cultures and
communities the two do intertwine. In fact my quest for
an authentic experience has landed me in a brothel more
than once. Disconcerting? Yes. Embarrassing? You bet.
But it has never put me off.
Of course banyas and hammams exist in this country,
but I am not talking about the luxury ones that have
popped up in Mayfair and the West End. I’m looking for
something egalitarian, somewhere where normal people
can go to unwind. The English did once flock to bath-
houses and “take the waters”, so I set off to see how
much of this I could still find.Thermae Bath Spa
I decided to start with the Romans and went to Bath,
where people have been flocking to experience the
thermal waters for millennia. Today the Roman baths are
a tourist attraction, but you can access water from the
same source from two places: the luxurious surround-
ings of the Gainsborough hotel or the cheaper Thermae
spa. I booked in for a two-hour slot at the latter.
The building has recently benefited from a multi million-
pound renovation and now boasts state-of-the-art facili-
ties. It feels a lot like a European sanatorium; everything
is shining and white. You are handed towels, slippers and
a bathrobe at the entrance and left to your own devices.
Inside there is a wellness floor with an infrared sauna,
two steam rooms and an ice chamber. There is also a café.
But the real highlights are the thermal pools. The water
in them fell as rain about 10,000 years ago before sinking
to 2km below the earth’s surface, where it was heated
by high-temperature rocks before rising up again at a
comfortable 45C. Prized by the Romans for its health
benefits, the water contains more than 42 minerals
including sulphur, calcium and sodium. I certainly felt
relaxed bobbing around in it for a couple of hours. There
is a large pool at the bottom of the building, but the real
highlight is the rooftop pool with its awesome views of
over Bath. Intrepid as ever, I braved Storm Arwen in a
bikini and it was well worth it to look over the city at
night. There is no nudity here — the sessions are all
mixed. Treatments are available but they are more of the
pampering kind. The price tag makes it accessible to
local residents and tourists, which makes for a buzzing
atmosphere but less intimacy than I was hoping to find.
£38 for two hours Monday to Friday and £43 on
Saturday and Sunday; thermaebathspa.comTurkish Baths Harrogate
Amazing is an understatement when describing the
Turkish Baths at Harrogate. Bathhouses were built in
Victorian England to provide the working classes with
somewhere to wash, but this one is something special.
Of the seven Victorian bathhouses still in existence, it is
the most fully restored and is in excellent condition
thanks to a £300,000 refurbishment partly funded by
the national lottery. It is also spectacular, dating back to
1897, when a local businessman, Richard Ellis, was trying
to turn this Yorkshire city into the health capital of
Britain. There are Moorish designs on the domed ceil-
ings, glazed wall tiles and terrazzo floors laid by the best
Italian experts. It feels like walking into a time warp —TURKISH BATHS
HARROGATETHERMAE
BATH SPAStefano Moro Van Wyk/Blaublut Edition
The Sunday Times Style • 43