Strand Lane: Roman Bath

Building Construction on the Strand in London Photographic Print 12" x 16" $69.99 Unframed

Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of the Strand with this mention of the Roman bath in Strand Lane:

The immense changes taking place in the Strand begin to be very noticeable opposite Somerset House. At the time of writing (1903) a few houses at the corner of Wellington Street are still standing, but will soon disappear.

On the south side of the Strand, just beyond the east end of St. Mary's Church, is a narrow entry called Strand Lane. This was formerly Strand Bridge, over one of the rivulets running down to the Thames, and later it still retained the same name, meaning the bridge or landing stairs at the river end.

Some way down this lane there is a notice pointing out a Roman bath which is still in existence and well worth seeing. The bath now belongs to Messrs. Glave, drapers in New Oxford Street, and is open free of charge for anyone to inspect between eleven and twelve o'clock on Saturday mornings.

It is a rough vaulted chamber which has wisely been left without any attempt at decoration, and the bath itself measures about six yards by one and a half. It is four feet in depth, and is fed by a spring which continually flows in.

Subscribers are allowed to use it on the payment of two guineas per annum. There was formerly a companion bath quite near, but this was done away with at the building of the Norfolk Hotel.

The slabs of white marble which form the pavement of the existing bath were taken from it. It is curious that such a relic, computed to be perhaps 2,000 years old, should survive hidden and almost unnoticed, where so many buildings long anterior in date have utterly vanished. The bath is not mentioned by Stow or Malcolm in their accounts of London, and probably was not discovered when they wrote.

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