

@mastersthesis {6424,
	title = {Public baths and washhouses in {Victorian} {Britain}, 1842{\textendash}1914},
	year = {2000},
	note = {9966060},
	school = {Indiana University},
	type = {phdPh.{D}.},
	address = {Ann Arbor},
	abstract = {The public baths and washhouses movement was a response to parliamentary public health investigations into the living conditions of the working classes in British towns and cities. The investigation reports dramatically described the dangerous dirt, filth, and disease of the urban working classes and called for sanitary reforms. In 1844 London philanthropists advocated public baths and washhouses to fight disease caused by dirt. These reformers funded the building of a privately operated establishment and promoted the passage of two parliamentary acts in 1846-47, which allowed municipalities to use local taxes to build public baths and washhouses. This legislation stipulated that institutions provide two classes of male and female accommodation on a pay-per-use basis. The more expensive first-class baths would subsidize the cheaper second-class baths, which in turn would serve the poorer and dirtier urban workers. Early institutions featured private cubicles with bath tubs, known as "slipper baths;" washhouses with piped water and individual wash tub cubicles; and sometimes small swimming pools thirty to forty feet in length, known as "plunging baths." By 1855, London parishes had built ten baths and washhouses. The early proponents of this pay-for-use movement envisioned consumerism as a means to public health. Recreation, however, proved to be more compatible with consumers{\textquoteright} preferences and thus became the movement{\textquoteright}s focus. The second-class private baths and washhouses, originally the heart of the movement{\textquoteright}s public health concerns, became secondary. After the 1880s, indoor swimming pools became baths and washhouses{\textquoteright} major consumer attraction; elaborate institutions typically featuring two to four pools were built on major public thoroughfares. Ironically, these well-attended recreational attractions did not bring in enough money to cover their costs, with local taxes making up the difference. Authorities{\textquoteright} investment in large recreational buildings discouraged public health initiatives, particularly the building of smaller institutions in poor districts. The movement{\textquoteright}s consumeristic foundations, combined with the growth of organized recreation for the lower-middle classes and upper working-classes, guided its evolution. With over 300 locally-operated examples by 1914, baths and washhouses had become familiar and distinctive parts of the Victorian urban landscape, but as a public health movement, they were limited at best.},
	keywords = {0335:European history, Baths, European history, Great Britain, Public baths, Social sciences, Victorian, Washhouses},
	url = {http://search.proquest.com/docview/304627861?accountid=14270},
	author = {Skoski, Joseph Richard}
}
