Roman Baths (Bath)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roman Baths

The entrance to the Roman Baths

Location within Somerset

England

51.3809N
Coordinates 2.3595WCoordinates:
51.3809N 2.3595W
Constructio Baths Roman
n started
Building - 1894
Completed

1897

Cost

7m (including refurbishments)
Design and construction

Architect

Building - John Wood, the Elder,

This article is about a site in the city of Bath. For the museum in Caerleon, see
Roman Baths Museum. For Roman baths in general, see Thermae.

The Roman Baths complex is a site of historical interest in the English city of Bath. The house
is a well-preserved Roman site for public bathing.
The Roman Baths themselves are below the modern street level. There are four main features:
the Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and the Museum holding finds
from Roman Bath. The buildings above street level date from the 19th century.
The Baths are a major tourist attraction and, together with the Grand Pump Room, receive more
than one million visitors a year,[1] with 1,037,518 people during 2009.[2] It was featured on the
2005 TV program Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the West Country. Visitors
can see the Baths and Museum but cannot enter the water. An audio guide is available in several
languages.
Contents

1 How the hot springs form at the Bathhouse

2 History
o

2.1 Roman use of the building

2.2 Redevelopment

2.3 Museum

3 Conservation

4 Water safety

5 Gallery

6 References

7 External links

How the hot springs form at the Bathhouse

Roman Baths, as without any new architectural elements

The water which bubbles up from the ground at Bath falls as rain on the nearby Mendip Hills. It
percolates down through limestone aquifers to a depth of between 2,700 and 4,300 metres (8,900
and 14,100 ft) where geothermal energy raises the water temperature to between 64 and 96 C
(147.2 and 204.8 F). Under pressure, the heated water rises to the surface along fissures and
faults in the limestone. This process is similar to an artificial one known as Enhanced
Geothermal System which also makes use of the high pressures and temperatures below the
Earth's crust. Hot water at a temperature of 46 C (114.8 F) rises here at the rate of 1,170,000
litres (257,364 imp gal) every day,[3] from a geological fault (the Pennyquick fault). In 1983 a
new spa water bore-hole was sunk, providing a clean and safe supply of spa water for drinking in
the Pump Room.[4]
History

The statue of King Bladud overlooking the King's Bath carries the date of 1699, but
its inclusion in earlier pictures shows that it is much older than this. [5]

The first shrine at the site of the hot springs was built by Celts,[6] and was dedicated to the
goddess Sulis, whom the Romans identified with Minerva. Geoffrey of Monmouth in his largely
fictional Historia Regum Britanniae describes how in 836 BC the spring was discovered by the
British king Bladud who built the first baths.[7] Early in the 18th century Geoffrey's obscure
legend was given great prominence as a royal endorsement of the waters' qualities, with the
embellishment that the spring had cured Bladud and his herd of pigs of leprosy through
wallowing in the warm mud.[8]
Roman use of the building

The name Sulis continued to be used after the Roman invasion, leading to the town's Roman
name of Aquae Sulis ("the waters of Sulis"). The temple was constructed in 60-70 AD and the
bathing complex was gradually built up over the next 300 years.[9] During the Roman occupation
of Britain, and possibly on the instructions of Emperor Claudius,[10] engineers drove oak piles to
provide a stable foundation into the mud and surrounded the spring with an irregular stone
chamber lined with lead. In the 2nd century it was enclosed within a wooden barrel-vaulted

building,[6] and included the caldarium (hot bath), tepidarium (warm bath), and frigidarium (cold
bath).[11] After the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the first decade of the 5th century, these fell
into disrepair and were eventually lost due to silting up,[12] and flooding.[13] The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle suggests the original Roman baths were destroyed in the 6th century.[14]
About 130 curse tablets have been found. Many of the curses related to thefts of clothes whilst
the victim was bathing.[15]
Redevelopment

The Great Bath the entire structure above the level of the pillar bases is a later
construction.

The baths have been modified on several occasions, including the 12th century when John of
Tours built a curative bath over the King's Spring reservoir and the 16th century when the city
corporation built a new bath (Queen's Bath) to the south of the Spring.[16] The spring is now
housed in 18th-century buildings, designed by architects John Wood, the Elder and John Wood,
the Younger, father and son. Visitors drank the waters in the Grand Pump Room, a neo-classical
salon which remains in use, both for taking the waters and for social functions. Victorian
expansion of the baths complex followed the neo-classical tradition established by the Woods. In
1810 the Hot Springs failed and William Smith opened up the Hot Bath Spring to the bottom,
where he found that the spring had not failed but had flowed into a new channel. Smith restored
the water to its original course and the Baths filled in less time than formerly.[17]
The visitor entrance is via an 1897 concert hall by J M Brydon. It is an eastward continuation of
the Grand Pump Room with a glass-domed centre and single-storey radiused corner.[18] The
Grand Pump Room was begun in 1789 by Thomas Baldwin. He resigned in 1791 and John
Palmer continued the scheme until its completion in 1799.[16] The elevation on to Abbey Church
Yard has a centre piece of four engaged Corinthian columns with entablatures and pediment. It
has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building.[19] The north colonnade was
also designed by Thomas Baldwin.[20] The south colonnade is similar but had an upper floor
added in the late 19th century.[21] The museum and Queen's Bath including the "Bridge" spanning
York Street to the City Laundry were by Charles Edward Davis in 1889. It comprises a

southward extension to the Grand Pump Room, in which some remains of the C17 Queen's Bath
are merged.[22]
Museum

The museum houses artefacts from the Roman period including objects which were thrown into
the Sacred Spring, presumably as offerings to the goddess. These include more than 12,000
Roman currency coins which is the largest collective votive deposit known from Britain.[23] A gilt
bronze head of the goddess Sulis Minerva, which was discovered nearby in 1727, is displayed.[24]

Gorgon's Head from the Temple Pediment

The Bath Roman Temple stood on a podium more than two metres above the surrounding
courtyard, approached by a flight of steps. On the approach there were four large, fluted
Corinthian columns supporting a frieze and decorated pediment above. The pediment, parts of
which are displayed in the museum, is the triangular ornamental section, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide
and 8 feet (2.4 m) from the apex to the bottom,[25] above the pillars on the front of the building. It
featured the very powerful central image of the Gorgons head glowering down from a height of
15 metres on all who approached the temple. In early 2010 various stones on the pediment were
conserved and rearranged.[26]
In the corners of the pediment are Tritons, half men and half fish, servants of the water god
Neptune. In the lower left centre ground is a face helmet in the form of a dolphins head. The
small owl tucked away to the lower right of the large central roundel is also almost certainly
perched atop another helmet. The central head is held aloft by female 'Victories', on a shield
ringed with oak leaves. The Victories stand on globes. Above all this, in the apex of the
pediment, is a star. The great head itself has snakes entwined within its beard, wings above its
ears, beetling brows and a heavy moustache[27] although there is some controversy about what
this really represents as Gorgons are usually female.[28] An alternative interpretation sees the
central head as the image of a water god such as the image of Oceanus, and yet another as a
Celtic sun god.[11]
Also on display are the remains of the elaborate hypocaust heating system which served the
sweat rooms.
Conservation

Statues on the terrace

The late 19th century carvings of Roman Emperors and Governors of Roman Britain on the
terrace overlooking the Great Bath are particularly susceptible to the effect of acid rain and are
being protected with a wash of a sacrificial shelter coat every few years.[29] Exhibits within the
temple precincts are susceptible to warm air which had the effect of drawing corrosive salts out
of the Roman stonework. To help reduce this, a new ventilation system was installed in 2006.[30]
In 2009 a grant of 90,000 was made to Bath and North East Somerset Council to contribute
towards the cost of re-developing displays and improving access to the Roman Baths,[31] by the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport/Wolfson Fund, which was established to promote
improvements in Museums and Galleries in England.[32][33]
Water safety

Bath was charged with responsibility for the hot springs in a Royal Charter of 1591 granted by
Elizabeth I. This duty has now passed to Bath and North East Somerset Council, who carry out
monitoring of pressure, temperature and flow rates. The thermal waters contain sodium, calcium,
chloride and sulphate ions in high concentrations.[34]
The water that flows through the Roman Baths is considered unsafe for bathing, partly due to its
having passed through the still-functioning original lead pipes, and up until World War II, it was
advertised on the basis of the radioactivity it contained. However, the more significant danger is
now considered to be infectious diseases. In October 1978, a young girl swimming with the Bath
Dolphins, a local swimming club, in the restored Roman Bath contracted meningitis and died,[35]
leading to the closure of the bath for several years.[36] Tests showed that Naegleria fowleri, an
amoeba, was in the water.[37] The newly constructed Thermae Bath Spa nearby, designed by
Nicholas Grimshaw and Partners, and the refurbished Cross Bath allow modern-day bathers to
experience the waters via a series of more recently drilled boreholes.
Gallery