The Victorian Equivalent of The Galgorm: Turkish Baths in Belfast

Wee Walks Belfast is a great believer in a 'Spa Day' to refresh and revive you, and you might think that's a fairly new idea, but did you know that there was a Spa here in Belfast in the 1860's? It was in Donegall Street and was the first public bathhouse in Belfast, although long demolished it's one of the stops on my 'Brothels, Babies & Old Belfast': Cathedral Quarter Walking Tour. The Belfast Bathhouse opened on the 1st of October 1860 but it seems the people of Belfast were slow to adopt the Turkish ways and it was deemed to be too expensive for the working classes. It was bought over by a man called John North in 1892 and he re branded from the Belfast Bathhouse to the Hammam Turkish Baths in 1893. He already owned the Hammam Baths and Hotel in Sackville Street in Dublin (now O Connell Street). The Hammam Turkish Baths were for men and women, but in 1895 the ladies baths closed down as women didn’t seem to be keen on sharing these private rituals , although it did reopen again the following year. John North died in 1910 and both baths Belfast and Dublin passed to his son-in-law Joseph Armstrong and coal shortages in the 1920s means the baths had to be temporarily closed.

Donegall Street Turkish baths

So what was it like to have a Spa Day at the Hammam Turkish Baths? It was open from 6.00 AM to 8.00AM and it had two separate entrances with the second-class entrance being in Litte Donegall Street. A second-class bathing experience cost six pence, before and after work, which was about £4. It was nine pence to stay all day. First class bathing cost one shilling sixpence which is about £12 and seems to have got you more opulent surroundings, better combs and mirrors and the added advantage that you didn't have to mix with the working class! As they were owned by the same person, I imagine it was a similar set up to the  Dublin baths which was a series of hot rooms followed by a wash and massage known as a 'shampoo' followed by a cold wash or shower. After this you were to relax for about one hour in a cooling room.

The cooling room in the Hammam Baths and Hotel, Dublin 1894

The Baths were heated by an underfloor heating system and you were even given cork soled slippers to stop you burning your feet. The Hammam Turkish Baths had four sets of baths, first and second class for men and women. Each had its own shampooing room and a wide range of showers including needle, douche, spray and pine as well as sulpher and plunge baths. Adjoining the baths there were also separate coffee-rooms for men and women, and an ice-cream soda water apparatus which produced ‘eight different kinds of delicious drinks, to cool and refresh the bathers'. Ladies had their own days on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and they paid the same as the men, but in the 1930s it became Tuesdays only. If you were an older lady (over the age of 35!) you were advised to seek medical advice before you entered the Turkish Bath. But post-war rising fuel and staffing costs made running a Turkish bath expensive and coal shortages meant the baths had to temporarily close in the 1920s. The Hammam Baths and Hotel in Dublin were destroyed in 1922 during the Irish Civil War and the gradual rise in the number of homes with hot and cold running water cheaper alternatives such as the free-standing Finnish sauna meant that the days of the Hammam Turkish Bath in Donegall Street were numbered. It closed for good in 1937 and after lying empty for a few years it was finally demolished in 1946.