The Strand Lane Roman Bath: A history

Often in London and its history, things are not quite as they seem. Tucked down a secluded lane between the busy Strand and the Embankment, you will find the Strand Lane ‘Roman Bath’. 

It is, however, neither Roman, nor originally a bath. I recently managed to visit this particular spot when they had a free art exhibition on. It was by an artist called Kate McMillan, presented by The Colab. So, thank you to them and King’s College London as well, who were involved and invited me to look around. I have written a bit more on the exhibition at the bottom of the post.

Strand Lane 

Strand Lane is an odd little sidestreet that shoots off from Temple Place on the Victoria Embankment, but comes to a dead end, before it reaches the Strand.

It is sometimes closed at the weekend, but often open in the week, as King’s College, I believe, use it for deliveries. There is also an entranceway from Surrey Street via Surrey Steps, but this is ordinarily shut. 

Often the least likely looking passages through the metropolis hold some of its best secrets. There are a couple of interesting sights to look out for on Strand lane. Walking up it you see the overhanging curved apse of King’s College Chapel. This was designed by George Gilbert Scott, completed in 1864. 

You can also see the St Clement’s Watchhouse straddling the street.

A Grade II listed structure, it is an 18th century building with a later 19th century frontage. This would have once been where the beadle of the parish of St Clement Danes, a nearby church on the Strand, would have lived and kept watch. This was before the Metropolitan Police had been established in 1829 and ‘policing’ was generally under the jurisdiction of individual parishes.

You can see underneath the building two church parish boundary markers that show you that it was right on the border between the parishes of St Clement Danes and St Mary le Strand.

I wrote about the beautiful St Mary le Strand Church recently here. 

The ‘Roman Bath’

On the right you will see a sign informing you that here you can find the Strand Lane Roman Bath. 

It is not generally open to the public, but there is a black set of iron railings and a window, through which you can, sort of, peek in. 

As mentioned previously, the name is misleading, but does speak to the complicated story of this historical survivor. The bath dates from 1612 and was, in fact, originally a cistern. It stored water that then fed water fountains in the gardens of Somerset House. 

The Strand, until the late 17th century ,was lined with the mansions and palaces of the rich and wealthy. Somerset House had originally been built for the Duke of Somerset, Edward Seymour, in the 1550s. After he was beheaded on the orders of his nephew, the young King Edward VI, in 1552, the palace passed into royal hands. 

In the Stuart period, it was used to house the Queen Consorts. King James I ordered the palace to be largely rebuilt by Inigo Jones from 1609 for his wife Anne of Denmark. It was known as Denmark House for a while. 

As part of that redevelopment, beautiful gardens were laid out with fountains and other garden features. A large decorative grotto-fountain, by Salomon de Caus, featuring sculptures of Pegasus and the Muses, was fed by a pump from the cistern where Strand Lane is today, which in turn was fed by a natural spring. 

The Cistern Becomes A Bath

In the 1770s a man called James Smith moved into 33 Surrey Street, the rear of which included the old cistern and spring and started advertising ‘a cold bath… for ladies and gentlemen, supplied with water from a Spring, which continually runs through it’. 

Smith also later expanded and opened a second bath, for women, named the ‘Essex Bath’, with tiled walls and lined with marble. The Essex name comes from another of the nearby aristocratic mansions: Essex House, Essex Street now being on the site.  

It continued to be used as a public bath/plunge pool, but developed a slightly odd reputation. For example, in 1777, a fare-dodger fell into the bath and had to be rescued from drowning, after being pursued by his cabbie. In 1792 an MP called William Weddell had a seizure and died in the bath. 

The Bath Becomes A ‘Roman’ Bath

To perhaps throw off these associations and attract customers, the owner in 1838, called Charles Scott, started marketing them as having ancient origins: the ‘Old Roman Spring Baths’. 

As stories and fabrications often do, this falsehood ended up becoming accepted wisdom. 

In 1842 a popular guidebook to London by Charles Knight repeated the claim of antiquity, the water apparently sparkled ‘as clear as crystal’. In Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, he writes: ‘There was an old Roman bath in those days at the bottom of one of the streets out of the Strand—it may be there still—in which I have had many a cold plunge.’ The claims were repeated in many other publications. Many visited specifically due to its supposed ancient origins and the link to Dickens. 

You can still see the remains of the old sign in the entranceway to the bath today.

In 1893 the whole site was bought by a draper called Henry Glave. He sold the ‘Essex Bath’ and building above it to the Norfolk Hotel. Today the Essex Bath sits underneath the Geography department of King’s College. Glave then kept the older bath himself and opened it as a visitor attraction.

In 1922, his daughter Blanche offered it for sale. 

The National Trust 

If sold to the wrong person, it could have simply been demolished. Thankfully, however, it was purchased for £500 by the then Rector of Clement Danes church, William Pennington Bickford. He saved it on account of its ‘antiquity’ and again redecorated it in marble and stucco to return it to its former, Roman glory.

Bickford died in 1941 and in 1944 the National Trust took it over. They agreed that the London County Council would handle the maintenance and a timber magnate called Montague L Meyer paid the purchase price. The bath opened again to the public in 1951 and an investigation was carried out by the LCC into exactly how old it is. They put the myth of its Roman origins to bed once and for all. 

At first, it was attributed as something possibly to do with the sculpture garden and grounds of Arundel House, the aristocratic mansion of the Dukes of Norfolk, that was once close to here. However, the connection to Somerset House has since been discovered.

The Bath Today 

It is a shame, I think, that the bath is not more open to the public. It can possibly, as you can see from the sign below, be seen in groups on appointment with the National Trust.

The bath has also opened previously for the Open House festival, run by Open City. 

I was therefore delighted when I heard that the bath was opening for the art exhibition I mentioned. It was called The River’s Stomach (Songs of Empire) by Kate McMillan and used sound, video and objects to evoke the lives of women who had travelled to and from London via the Thames. The exhibiton is no longer on, but hopefully more events will be put on in the bath in the future. 

It was organised by The Colab, a women-led group of artists. They organised The Artist’s Garden, on top of Temple Station, a free public sculpture garden. The artworks often relate to their placement on the Embankment and are definitely worth checking out.

Thank you very much for reading, more hidden London history below.