Taking the Waters in Bath

Construction of The Roman Baths began in A.D. 43 and extended over 300 years. They were situated at the center of an extensive leisure complex that included a gymnasium and massage room, as well as areas devoted to gambling and wine drinking.

Today, their most conspicuous feature is the Great Bath, a large rectangular pool filled with ominous-looking green water. Originally, the Great Bath had a roof and the water was clear; nowadays, being open to the sky, sunlight facilitates the growth of algae. Nobody swims in the Great Bath anymore, and the surrounding site is a museum (the highlight of which is a stunning gilt bronze mask of the goddess Minerva). Most of the surviving Roman structures are below what is now street level. These include the Sacred Spring, the foundations of the caldarium, tepidarium and frigidarium (the hot, tepid and cold baths) and parts of the pediment of the Temple of Minerva, including a powerful Gorgon’s head that once glowered down on worshipers from a height of 50 feet.

The water was long held to have a range of therapeutic qualities.

Bath has three thermal springs. The King’s Spring rises within The Roman Baths; the other two, the Hetling Spring and the Cross Spring, emerge about 450 feet to the west. Museum visitors now walk on elevated pathways, below which the steaming natural waters continue to flow at a rate of 264,000 gallons a day and a steady temperature of about 115 degrees. It is believed that the water fell as rain on the nearby Mendip Hills at least 10,000 years ago, seeping down through limestone aquifers to more than a mile beneath the earth’s surface. The water contains 42 minerals, with high concentrations of sodium, calcium, chloride and sulphate ions, and was long held to have a range of therapeutic qualities. A drinking fountain at the exit of the museum allows visitors to sample clean water from a borehole. The taste is strong and not unlike that of Vichy water. In the 18th century, visitors drank the waters in the adjoining Grand Pump Room, a social center that features in Jane Austen’s novels “Northanger Abbey” and “Persuasion.”

If you want to bathe in the thermal waters today, you can do so as a guest at The Gainsborough hotel or in the new Thermae Bath Spa, a splendid public facility that opened in 2006. Designed by a leading British architect, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, the striking building was constructed in golden Bath stone and enclosed by a glass envelope. The complex comprises two natural thermal baths — a spectacular open-air rooftop pool and an indoor pool — plus a large steam room with four glass pods, and 20 spa treatment rooms, including the 18th-century Hot Bath. Children under 16 are not permitted, but they may bathe with adult supervision in the Cross Bath nearby, an open-air thermal bath under the same management housed within an exquisite Georgian building constructed in 1789 in the style of the great neoclassical architect, Robert Adam.