LIGHTING, DECORATING, AND FURNISHING.
Light and shade being the soul of all ornamental effect, we may well
consider first the methods of lighting the bath. As a rule, much
artificial light will be required. The hot rooms, being often in a
basement, are as a rule but feebly illumined from areas and the like.
Seeing that purity of atmosphere in these apartments is of so vital
importance, the method of artificial lighting adopted should not be such
as impregnates the air with obnoxious and harmful, if unnoticeable,
fumes. Gas, for this reason, used in the ordinary manner, is
objectionable, as the ventilation being by means of low-level exits for
the foul air, the products of combustion must of necessity pass by and
envelop persons below the burners, though, of course, in a diluted
state. Should, therefore, gas-lighting be employed in a sudatory
chamber, it should for preference be on one of those systems whereby the
burner is cut off from the atmosphere of the room, and provision made
for carrying off the fumes. Happily, the use of electric lighting is at
last increasing with marked rapidity; and the incandescent light is
admirably adapted for all purposes of the Turkish bath. Where it can
possibly be adopted it is a great addition to a bath.
For cooling room purposes gas is not so objectionable, except that it is
heating, and assists in vitiating the atmosphere. But inasmuch as the
fumes in this case will ascend with the general body of air, the
objection to gas is much lessened in these apartments. Nevertheless, the
electric light is the illuminant to be coveted.
The quality of the lighting in the cooling room should be toned and
softened. It is not a place for brilliant general illumination, but
rather for a soft light pervading the whole, and auxiliary lights where
required, such as near couches, &c.--a system, in fact, diametrically
opposed to sun-burner illumination. Nothing more objectionable of its
kind can well be imagined than a glaring light in the ceiling of a
cooling room. It would be found intolerable.
For practical purposes, the greatest amount of light required in any
part of a frigidarium is that at the heads of the couches, where it must
be of such strength as will admit of comfortable reading. One
gas-burner, or one small incandescent lamp, to every two couches is a
fair allowance. If effect be desired, there is, of course, much in the
distribution of the illuminating agent that affects for good or evil,
and the placing and the relative powers of the lamps or burners must be
considered. The dominant point of light might be a prettily-designed
lantern with a few brilliant points of colour in it, depending from a
chain over a fountain, throwing its rays downwards on to the falling
waters, and _not_ in the eyes of those bathers who may be reclining upon
the couches.
Throughout the bath, in either natural or artificial lighting, by
windows or lamps, it should be the aim not to throw strong light in the
eyes of the bather--a principle of universal application, but especially
to be regarded in a place where, more often than not, the occupants of
the various apartments are reclining, _face upwards_, on benches or
couches. In the hot rooms, as in the cooling room, little general
illumination is required. A bright artificial light in such places seems
especially painful to the eyes. What light, therefore, may be provided
in the sudatory chambers, should be as diffused as possible, the
additional lights for the few who practise reading in these apartments
being so arranged as not to be objectionable to the majority of bathers.
The lights should be shaded so as to throw their rays downwards in a
very small compass.
Considerably more light is required in the lavatoria and shampooing
rooms. In scheming the plan of bath rooms in a basement, where daylight
can only be obtained at one point, it is desirable, if practicable, to
arrange the shampooing room so that it may enjoy the benefit of this
light.
For effect, the scale of lighting in the bath rooms may be a rather dark
laconicum, and a gradually-increased amount of light from thence to the
shampooing room. The plunge-bath chamber should be well lighted, but not
above the tone of the frigidarium, or the bather will feel to be going
from cheerfulness to comparative gloom, which would be unpleasant. A
bright, warm light should be that in the plunge-bath chamber, with
perhaps an ornamental lamp over the bath itself; and if the
intermediary staircase--should there be such a feature--be lighted on a
lower scale, the effect on entering the frigidarium will be a cheerful
one.
DECORATING.
Under this heading, I would speak of the means of obtaining effect in a
bath, of the materials to be employed, and of the design of features--of
the effect of the whole and the proportions of its parts, rather than of
anything implying the _laying on_ of so-called ornament.
The architecture of a bath is _interior architecture_ as distinct from
that involving external work. Much of this, moreover, can often only be
seen by artificial light. These two restrictions point to the
employment, for the most part, of surface decoration, rather than of
modelling--of tiles, mosaics, marbles, in place of mouldings, cornices,
and pilasters.
There are three features of the bath that are fit subjects for handsome
designing, and they are the frigidarium, the tepidarium, and the plunge
bath. There is an excuse for elaborating the first two, in that these
are the apartments in which the bather remains the longest time; and as
for the plunge, it is in itself an object capable of giving a very
pleasing effect. Over-elaboration--in respect to added ornament--in the
hot rooms, however, gives an air of incongruity. Simplicity, with good
proportions, seems here the most pleasing. The general effect of the hot
rooms should be light, a statement which is wholly in harmony with what
I have said on their lighting, though it may not at first sight appear
to be so. The tone of the ceilings and walls and floors should be light,
the darkest portions being a dado. A generally dark and heavy tone of
colouring is very oppressive in a sudatory chamber. Keep them light:
light ceilings of plaster for cheap baths, and of lightly decorated,
large, thin tiles, or lightly-tinted enamelled iron, for more expensive
establishments; light walls of white, ivory, cream, or buff glazed
bricks, without startling bands of a vulgar, as distinct from a really
bold, contrast; and mosaic floors of a light filling-in and not too dark
pattern. The risers to marble-topped benches may be of another tone, but
not too dark; and, in place of a dado of bare glazed bricks, it is
perhaps best to stretch Indian matting to keep the bather from the
burning wall, as at Fig. 20. This will necessitate fillets affixed to
plugs in the brickwork. Woodwork looks best dark and polished, affording
an agreeable contrast to the lighter materials.
Bright points of colour may be obtained by stained glass in
ceiling-lights or windows, and at night by coloured glass shades over
lamps, &c.
The use of iron joists with glazed brick arches between is not to be
recommended for the ceilings of the hot rooms. To say the least, it is a
heavy-looking arrangement. Enamelled iron may be made to look very well
if affixed in sheets of delicate tint with light patterns, and affixed
with "buttons" with enamelled heads to the fireproof floors, as at Fig.
18. Large thin tiles make an admirable ceiling for small baths. They
may be fixed with ornamental wood fillets, or made with screw-holes and
affixed to ceiling joists.
[Illustration: FIG. 18.
Section and Plan of an Enamelled Iron Ceiling.]
Glazed brickwork for the walls of hot rooms, &c., should be specified to
be executed with an extra neat joint, and should bond to less than 12
in. to the foot; otherwise the effect of the unwieldy mortar joints is
clumsy. This applies equally to walling and to arches and vaults. Work
which may pass as fair in ordinary cases, looks coarse and rough in the
glazed interior walls of a bath. In selecting glazed bricks there is
some difficulty in obtaining really delicate tints; much of the work
produced is unfortunately of a very crude colouring.
One portion of the tepidarium, and other bath rooms, admits of being
rendered very attractive; and that is the flooring. Mosaic work is
always pleasing, if it be designed with taste and executed artistically.
Marble and tile mosaics are both good, the former admitting of a
richness of effect quite its own, and the latter of brilliant colouring.
In designing marble-mosaic floors, however, one may well fight shy of
including that senseless, purposeless description which is nowadays so
often employed as a filling-in between borders. I refer to the
heterogeneous jumble of every colour mixed without regard to one
another, and giving at a distance a dirty grey tone, and near at hand an
effect like a gravel walk covered with faded cherry-blossom--to be
flattering. Despite the fact that this method of design is of antique
origin, and has a real classical designation, I cannot but think that it
is to be avoided, and that fillings-in should be made with tesseræ of
one tint, or that mosaic should be abandoned altogether.
Given the means, it is easy to render a set of bath rooms elaborate,
with faïence and modelled glazed ware, marbles and painted encaustic
tiles, and many other suitable but expensive materials; but for my own
part I prefer to see comparative simplicity in a sudatory chamber,
though by this I do not mean monastic severity of style.
The general air of the frigidarium requires some consideration. It
should have an effect of its own, quite distinct from anything else. It
should have something of the conservatory in it. It should be richly
carpeted, have much woodwork about it, and be pleasant with plants and
laden with the murmur of falling waters. It should be light, certainly;
cheerful, cool, and airy looking; and as lofty as possible within reason
and common sense. The ceiling should be of a light tone. A lantern-light
where the light may come in, rather than be seen, and where the vitiated
air may go out, is a pleasant and useful addition.
Points for emphasising with a view to ultimate effect are the stairs to
hot rooms--if a staircase be needed--the divans or screens for couches,
and an ornamental fountain as above described. The staircase may be
rendered attractive with bowl newels, and perhaps white marble treads to
the stairs. The divans may be rendered things of beauty by designing
ornamental, open-work wood partitions, in either an Oriental style or
otherwise. It is not easy to make small dwarf partitions, enclosing a
couple of couches, look handsome. As a rule, they are of a flimsy and
gimcrack order of architecture. They should be made as solid as
possible. For effect there is nothing better than prettily-designed
divans.
As regards style, I do not see why one method of design should be more
suited than another for the bath. Having become popularly known as the
"Turkish" bath, an Eastern or Saracenic style has been often adopted in
the past. And, inasmuch as such style is essentially an interior style
of architecture, there is something to be said on this score. It is,
moreover, a style in which surface decoration pertains rather than
modelled work, or, at least, the modelling is in very low relief. There
is yet ample scope for the display of skill in the design of a bath in
an Oriental style, as hitherto such attempts have only been made in a
half-hearted manner; and in many smaller commercial baths the unskilful
use of the style has vulgarised it to no small extent.[3]
Considering that the old Romans brought the bath to a great pitch of
excellence--far, very far, I should be inclined to say, in advance of
our present knowledge of the subject--their style of architecture would
seem fitted to its design at this day; and for large public baths,
larger than any yet erected in this country, one can imagine that a very
interesting design could be made in the Roman style, founded on a study
of the old baths, and, for the sake of the interest attaching to them,
reproducing many of the original mosaics, pictures, details, &c., of the
public baths of the time of the Empire. In a like manner in the Moorish
style one could obtain a very elegant effect by a careful study of old
baths in Eastern countries,[4] drawing, perhaps, some inspiration from
the courts of the palaces of the Moors, with their pleasant retired air,
for the frigidarium. I have often thought, when looking at the late Owen
Jones' splendid model at the Crystal Palace, what an admirable
frigidarium the Court of the Lions would make, with its spacious
central area, and retired nooks suitable for couches, and its pretty
sparkling fountain and green plants, its brilliant colouring, and
general cheerfulness of effect. Similarly, in a Roman style, a Pompeian
court seems suggestive of the arrangement of a fine frigidarium, with
its _cubicula_ for couches, and its central area and fountain.
The above are but theoretical suggestions as to what might be done
should the bath make such progress in this country as may necessitate
the provision of handsome public baths for the people. In everyday
practice there is not a great field for elaborate designing in baths.
Although only the Roman and Eastern styles have been mentioned, there
can be no manner of reason why an architect should not design his bath
in whatsoever style he may please.
I have spoken of the plunge bath as a feature capable of being rendered
a thing of beauty. This is in reference as much to its plan as to the
materials of the sides and floor, &c. There is no reason why a plunge
should always be a plain oblong on plan. It may be of any of the shapes
indicated at Fig. 19. Many bathers, especially in warm weather, like to
stay some minutes in the plunge, and not go straight through; they may
like to swim up and down the bath, and thus require room to turn, and a
keyhole plan, such as at A, is suitable, and especially useful where the
bather has to return to the end of bath he entered. Another shape is
shown at B. In ladies' baths still more margin for novel planning is
allowable, as here the true dive seldom pertains. A delicate semi-oval
plan, such as that at D, which is much after the pattern of the Roman
bath recently discovered at Box, could be employed; or a plain, circular
bath with steps around, such as that of the Pompeian _Balneum_, shown at
C; or, again, such a plan as that at E, after the classic one at Bognor
in Sussex. For inspirations as to the plans of plunge baths, we cannot
do better than refer direct to the old Roman remains, either in Italy
itself, or in Great Britain and other provinces and colonial
dependencies of the old Empire. The Romans were fully alive to the
possibilities of the plunge bath as a subject for artistic design, and
often produced baths of great beauty.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.
Plans of Plunge Baths.]
The flooring and sides of these baths should be of a light tint, and
there should always be more or less pure white. Nothing really is better
than plain white glazed bricks, with neat joints. With this bottom the
water always looks clean when it is clean, and shows contamination when
it exists. Marble-mosaic floorings should be chiefly of white tesseræ,
any simple patterns being executed in light tints. Delicate tints, such
as strawberry, pea green, and peacock blue, look well through the water.
The floor of the plunge bath may thus be made very pretty. The sides are
best of glazed brickwork, neatly executed, and coping and treads of
steps of so-called white marble.
FURNISHING.
The work of the upholsterer in fitting up a Turkish bath comprises the
complete furnishing of the cooling room with couches, lounges, ottomans,
carpets, mats, and any chairs and tables that may be required, besides
the usual furniture common to all rooms. In the sudatory chambers may be
required easy chairs of peculiar construction, with stretched canvas
seats; in some cases movable wooden benches in lieu of fixed
marble-topped ones; and any carpeting, matting, felt for benches,
curtains (if any), and Indian matting for dadoes. These are the
principal requirements that need consideration, the remaining furnishing
of subordinate apartments being, of course, of commonplace and ordinary
description. The refreshment department requires possibly a
coffee-maker, refrigerator, ice-box, and shelf fittings; but, as a
general rule, no arrangements for actual cooking.
The cooling room couches are usually made 6 ft. by 2 ft.; but 6 ft. 6
in. by 2 ft. 6 in. is a more liberal allowance. They should be made of
polished wood, strongly framed, stuffed with horsehair and covered with
a red Turkey twill, as at A, Fig. 21. Where divans are adopted, on the
Eastern model, the benches must be framed of wood, permanently fixed,
and covered with mattresses kept in their places by a wooden fillet, as
Fig. 20. Above the couch thus formed it is well to stretch a dado of
Indian matting, affixed above to a moulded rail.
The carpets employed in the cooling room should be soft to the tread.
Nothing, of course, equals a Persian or Turkey carpet, and one or the
other should be provided when their cost can be afforded. A rich carpet
adds greatly to the effect of the room. In cases where a polished wood
floor is adopted and shown, soft durable matting or strips of carpet
must be placed along any routes, such as from and to the hot rooms and
the boot-room, by the sides of couches, to lounges and tables,
&c.--anywhere, in fact, where the bather may require to tread. Anything
in the nature of fastenings likely, by any possibility, to injure the
feet, must be carefully avoided.
A table or two for books, papers, magazines, &c., should be provided in
the cooling room. The provision of lounges, &c., must depend upon the
design of the room, and whether nooks or angles are available for their
accommodation. Little wooden or metal tripod tables must be placed by
the heads of the couches (Fig. 21, B).
[Illustration: FIG. 20.
Section of Benches in Hot Rooms and in Cooling Room Divans.]
The chairs in the hot rooms must be designed upon some such lines as at
C and D, whereat are shown an iron, and a wooden, framed chair. Beechen
frames are best, and the seat formed of rather closely-woven canvas
fixed at top and bottom and hanging in a curve. A few of these seats
should always be provided in the hot rooms. Movable wooden _benches_ are
constructed of beech, oak, or well-seasoned yellow deal, as at E. The
head end is best raised as shown. Very carefully-seasoned wood should be
employed, for all joinery purposes, in the hot rooms.
In the boot room, the pigeon-holes must not be forgotten, and a
cushioned seat, perhaps, for taking off boots and shoes. A shelf or
shelves for linen checks is useful in this position.
Sometimes the floor of the calidarium is carpeted all over, but _strips_
of matting or carpet are better. The hot laconicum is best carpeted
throughout. The tepidarium should have strips of carpet where the
bathers must necessarily tread. In some baths it is the custom to
provide, instead of carpet, felt sandals for use in the hot rooms. For
similar reasons to the carpeting--the non-conduction of heat--fine white
felting is sometimes placed in strips along the marble benches, as at
Fig. 20. Of the Indian matting for a portion of the walls above the
benches, I have already spoken.
In the shampooing rooms, little blocks of wood shaped as at E, Fig. 5,
are required as head-rests. They should be about 12 by 5 by 4 in., and
hollowed to fit the head.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.
Furniture of a Turkish Bath.]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 3: I do not know of any building--bath or otherwise, civil or
domestic--in this country where the true spirit of Oriental colour
decoration has been grasped. One of the chief principles which seems to
have been missed is that in real Saracenic art the colours are employed
in very small portions only, and no colour becomes insubordinate to the
general effect.]
[Footnote 4: Here is a branch of architectural design absolutely
unstudied. Few architects visit the East, and none enter the baths
there, either in Egypt, Turkey, or Morocco. The ordeal of the true
Oriental shampooing doubtless deters the few who might be curious about
these buildings.]