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@victurk.bsky.social Sep 23, 2026, 12:17 PM

#onthisday, 23 September 1889, died author Wilkie Collins, advised by his friend and doctor, Francis Carr Beard, to visit #TurkishBaths for his health. He wrote to his mother, 'excellent shampoos and great care in attendance.' (Thanks to @paullewismoney.bsky.social) 🗃️ #C19th

Caricature of Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) by Adriano Cecioni. Caption read "The Novelist who invented Sensation".

@stephanieoffer.bsky.social Sep 21, 2026, 7:42 PM

@davidolusoga.bsky.social's new programme Finding Britain's Slave Traders has dropped! 🗃 #C18th #C19th
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

@asls.org.uk Sep 21, 2026, 1:23 PM

Edinburgh’s Scott Monument is one of the largest memorials to a writer anywhere in the world. Standing near the railway station named for one of his novels, it dominates the city’s centre – just as Scott dominated much of #C19th European literature
#romanticism
cultureedinburgh.com/our-venues/s...

@victurk.bsky.social Sep 20, 2026, 1:15 PM

#onthisday, 20 September 1909, #Carlisle quietly opened #TurkishBaths in James St. Victorian-designed by City Surveyor Percy Dalton—later erected by local builder Wm Johnstone. It's now Grade II Listed. www.victorianturkishbath.org/_6DIRECTORY/… Closed 2022, but active campaign to reopen. 🗃️ #C19th

Early photograph of the changing cubicles and plunge bath in the cooling-room

Detail of the wonderful glazed faïence corbels and tilework

Plan of the three hot rooms, and the shampooing room with its needle douche

From Twitter page of the campaigning group, Friends of Carlisle Victorian & Turkish Baths. Please do visit the page (and one of the organised visits to the baths) and please support the Friends. The baths may have been quietly opened, but when they are re-opened it will be much much louder!

@shonaparkerhistory.bsky.social Sep 20, 2026, 7:08 AM

Happy Sunday! Here's an extract from Chapter 2 of A Guide to Victorian Love for you ...

If you have any questions, please ask!

#booksky #19thC #c19th #19thcentury #nineteenthcentury #Skystorians #History #Histodons #PublicHistory #histbookchat 🗃️

@victurk.bsky.social Sep 16, 2026, 9:32 AM

#onthisday, 16 September 1868, #Hobart Town Turkish Bath Co Ltd, encouraged by John Le Gay Brereton (who introduced the bath in #Australia), opened #TurkishBaths on the corner of Collins & Harrington Streets. Scene of an unusual incident in 1870 www.victorianturkishbath.org/_7CHARIVARI/... 🗃️ #C19th

Detail of the single storey Turkish baths building. (Courtesy of the State Library Of Tasmania)

Outer cover of booklet published in 1869. Front titled 'The Turkish Bath: a Lecture given by J[ohn] Le Gay Brereton, MD…'. The back comprises an advertisement for the Hobart Turkish bath, with several testimonials.

@victurk.bsky.social Sep 16, 2026, 9:23 AM

#onthisday, 16 September 1886, #TurkishBaths were opened at the St Petersgate Public Baths in #Stockport. Hot rooms 135°, 175°, & 260° F, shampooing room, & cooling-room. Stained glass windows and gas-lit by night. JC Prestwich of Leigh beat 90 other architects in competition. Closed 1993. 🗃️ #C19th

Photo of the façade of the public baths building. Mainly two storey with smaller central third storey. Built in free "Queen Anne" style, with Ruabon bricks and terracotta dressings. Arched windows.

@manchesterup.bsky.social Sep 15, 2026, 12:53 PM

Did you know #C19th Manchester was once a Shakespearean powerhouse?

In our new author blog, discover how an unexpected library find uncovered a forgotten story of innovation, performance & civic ambition,
manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2026/09...

#Shakespeare and #Manchester, out this month!

@markcrail.bsky.social Sep 14, 2026, 3:51 PM

#Chartism #C19th #History
The London Chartist Daniel William Ruffy, better known as Ruffy Ridley, was born #OnThisDay 14 September 1805. His incredible story is one of 42 told in my book Chartist Lives
www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G3Q7PR7Y

@howarthm.bsky.social Sep 14, 2026, 10:43 AM

🚨 the new #Venezuela #oil deal, as traditional a piece of #C19th colonialism as one can imagine... Many Venezuelans, delighted #NicolásMaduro is in a #US prison..must have hoped for the overthrow of the dictatorship, not a new colonial master with its hands on their oil. #MartinWolf @ftedit.ft.com

@victurk.bsky.social Sep 12, 2026, 10:29 AM

#onthisday, 12 September 1878, Cleopatra's Needle was installed in London, its hazardous overseas journey paid for by Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, surgeon, dermatologist, archaeologist, author of "The Eastern, or Turkish bath" & an early shareholder in the famous Jermyn Street Hammam. 🗃️ #C19th

Title page of "The Eastern, or Turkish bath: its history, revival in Britain, and appplication to the purposes of health" published in 1861.

@markcrail.bsky.social Sep 12, 2026, 7:11 AM

One week today.
If you’re coming, please book
#Chartism #C19th #History #Warwick
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chartism-d...

@victurk.bsky.social Sep 11, 2026, 1:32 PM

#onthisday, 11 Sept 1860, Foreign Affairs Committeeman Roger Evans—who'd earlier that yr opened London's 1st Victorian #TurkishBaths in Bell St—had to open larger one in Golden Square. Closed 1866—bldg to be Hosp for Throat Diseases extn (RNENT). www.victorianturkishbath.org/_2HISTORY/At... 🗃️ #C19th

Typographic advertisement for Evans' Turkish Baths, managed by another Foreign Affairs Committeeman, John Johnson, who went on to manage the Jermyn Street Hammam.

Handwritten accounts for the first 16 weeks of Roger Evans’s Turkish baths in Golden Square. (Wellcome Library)

Advertisement for both of Evans's Turkish baths from the Weekly Register and Catholic Standard (20 Oct 1860) published shortly after the Golden Square baths opened.

@victurk.bsky.social Sep 10, 2026, 8:40 AM

#onthisday, 10 September 1927, the London borough of #Woolwich opened Public Baths including #TurkishBaths in Plumstead High Street. Hot rooms at 150°, 180° & 220°F, steam rm, shampooing rm with 2 Sicilian marble slabs, plunge, needle & shower baths, & oak-panelled cooling-rm. Closure date? 🗃️ #C19th

Typographic cover of a booklet 'Turkish and Russian vapour baths: their uses and advantages' which was a 1928 reprint with illustrations of the original 1927 version.

Photograph of the entrance to the Turkish baths, with a star and crescent roundel above the central sign.

The shampooing room with two slabs and a needle shower.

The Turkish baths refreshments menu included a cup of tea for 2d., a cup of Bovril (very popular) at 3d., or a poached egg on toast for 6d.

@victurk.bsky.social Sep 9, 2026, 9:39 AM

#onthisday, 9 Sep 1893, #Batley Corpn's Baths were formally opened after the #Turkishbaths completed. 1st hot room (150°) seated 14 bathers & 2nd (200°) seated 6. Cooling-room had 6 "apartments" with couches, mirror, &c. Shampooing room, showers & needle douche. Also a cabinet vapour bath. 🗃️ #C19th

Postcard showing the exterior of the baths in Cambridge Street, with four children in the foreground.

Advertisement from the Batley News (24 November 1893) giving charges from 27th November 1893. No earlier ads giving the charges have so far been found, so it's not clear if earlier charges have been raised or, more likely, lowered. They cost 1/- from Monday to Thursday, and 6d on Friday and Saturday. They were open to women (at the higher price!) on Wednesday from noon till closing time.

@goldenageofpiracy.bsky.social Sep 8, 2026, 1:04 PM

Archaic word of the day:

iron horse - a steam-driven railway locomotive (First recorded in 1825)

#englishlanguage #history #c19th

Production Date: September 18, 1935 Source Type: Photograph Printer, Publisher, Photographer: Unknown Postmark: Not Applicable Collection: Steven R. Shook Remark: This photograph is believed to have been taken at the Northern Pacific Depot in Moscow, southeast of the intersection of Sixth Street and Deakin Street.

@asls.org.uk Sep 7, 2026, 1:58 PM

“Nothing could be so delightful as the style of living in Scotland; the people were so frank & gay, & the manners so easy & engaging…”

Ferrier’s 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦 (1818) looks at what happens when #romantic notions of the Highlands meet cold, damp reality…
#C18th #C19th 💙📚
asls.org.uk/publications...

@victurk.bsky.social Sep 7, 2026, 11:27 AM

#onthisday, 7 Sep 1906, #Manchester Corporation opened Victoria baths, incl one of the corp's 5 Victorian or Victorian-style #TurkishBaths . Closed in 1993. Now a community centre run by victoriabaths.org.uk. History: victorianturkishbath.org/_6DIRECTORY/AtoZEstab/England/ManHiS/1MHSEng.htm 🗃️ #C19th

Corner of the cooling-room with changing/relaxation cubicles (Photo: Manchester City Libraries)

A view through the hot rooms (Photo: Manchester City Libraries)

The shampooing room (Photo: Manchester City Libraries)

Protesters marching to save the Victoria Baths, Hathersage Road, Manchester, in 1993. (Photographer unknown)

@victurk.bsky.social Sep 7, 2026, 9:39 AM

#onthisday, 7 Sept 1903, the Midland Railway Company opened its Midland Hotel in #Manchester (designed by Charles Trubshaw) with #TurkishBaths in the basement. Very little is known about them or their closing date but, judging by other original rooms, they must have been luxurious. +ALTs 🗃️ #C19th

Exterior of the hotel (Photo: Brian Lomas)

Advertisement from the Manchester Courier (27 April 1909). An article in the same issue notes that the baths were "open night and day".

Advertisement in the Manchester Guardian (14 March 1925) announcing changed days when baths were open for women. Presumably any travelling woman wanting to stay overnight had to plan her itinerary carefully if she wanted to use the Turkish bath. More likely the baths were open to Manchester's residents also.

@victurk.bsky.social Sep 5, 2026, 11:48 AM

#onthisday, 5 Sept 1884, #Whitehaven #TurkishBaths opened—the 1st in the world to be lit by electricity using Swan's Incandescent Lamps as in Armstrong's nearby #Cragside. 3 hot rooms, salt water plunge, needle douche, shampooing & cooling-room. www.victorianturkishbath.org/_6DIRECTORY/... 🗃️ #C19th