Lady Well Baths

The history of Public Baths in this country, commences with the introduction of an Act to encourage the establishment of “Public Baths and Wash-Houses”, which received the Royal Assent on the 26th August 1846, and empowered local authorities to incur expenditure in erecting Public Baths out of its own funds.

Prior to this Act, a few towns had provided limited washing facilities for the poor persons, within the Powers Local Acts. Generally speaking bathing establishments were privately owned and exclusive to those only with leisure and money to spare.

The West Warwickshire Directory contains the following details of the owners of Lady Well Baths:

1815 – Brunner Paul, brush maker, and keeper of Lady Well Baths
1818 – Brunner Paul, brush maker, and keeper of the hot, cold pleasure, and shower baths (Lady Well)
1823 – Monro and Co fumigating and vapour baths, together with hot, cold, shower, and pleasure baths, Lady Well Walk
1833 and 1833 Monro George, proprietor of Lady Well Baths, Lady-Well Walk – also listed as Birmingham Baths
1839 Munroe, George, Lady Well Baths
1841-49 Monroe, Proprietor of Lady Well Baths

On the subject of baths, Historian, William Hutton, during the reign of King William IV says:

“In 1815 the baths at Lady Well, so called from the Virgin Mary, are the most complete baths, in the whole of the island they are seven in number, erected at the expense of £2000, Accommodation is ever ready for hot or cold bathing, for immersion or amusement, with facilities for sweating. The main bath appropriated to swimming, is eighteen yards by thirty yards, situated in the centre of a garden in which there are twenty four private undressing houses, the whole surrounded by a wall ten feet high. Lady Well Baths are beautifully supplied with the purist [sic] water.

“The 1st, or ladies bath, is laid with marble and has an excellent dressing room and a adjoining fountain. The 2nd or Gentlemen’s Cold bath is neatly fitted up with dressing room. The 3rd is also a Cold bath for gentlemen, and is upon a good scale, being fifteen feet and a half square and nearly four feet and a half deep, receiving a supply from an abundant spring within itself of twelve hogs heads per hour. It has private boxes fronting the water, and appear under a good painting! The 4th or large Swimming Bath is upwards of one hundred feet long and fifty feet wide, the gradual depth from three to five feet. This delightful bath which is supplied with about one thousand hogsheads of water per hour from Lady Well, and the surrounding springs. This is in the centre of a neatly laid out garden well planted with high trees and enclosed with high walls, and is perhaps unequalled in any island town in the Kingdom. The platform, flights of steps and conveniences for bathing and dressing are well constructed.

“The 5th or Temperance bath, by an equal mixture of hot and cold water produces in two or three minutes a bath of 82 degrees by Fahrenheit. The 6th or Hot Bath is made of fine veined marble, and is supplied from a large furnace with hot water from a reservoir adjoining with cold water. The heat is increased or decreased at pleasure in a few minutes to a temperature required.

“The Lady Well Baths has been considered by the faculty as a great acquisition to the town of Birmingham. The Ladies Cold Baths and dressing room are in a distinct building. There is also distinct baths for the Jews, conducted upon the plan laid down by the High Priest, and the shower baths throughout the establishment are regulated upon a new and improved principle.

“There are other baths supplied with Artificial Water, also Sulphine, Aromatic, Tropical, Fumigating or Vapour Baths specially fitted up for Invalids, the water being brought to a level with the dressing room and bedrooms and private apartments were provided for their accommodation.

“The dwelling house of the proprietor was erected and fitted up in a handsome style adjoining the Establishment, the whole of which was not only highly creditable to the proprietor but invaluable to those who used them!”

During the 1850’s, Mr Monro, the proprietor of the baths, decided to move the entire business to the Snow Hill area of Birmingham [see advertisement below]. The buildings of the Lady Well Baths lay derelict for a number of years and were eventually demolished.

The following lines were reportedly spoken at the meeting in 1818 when the closure of the well was proposed:

As Lady Well has long been left
Unto this Town a generous Gift,
Shall one man dare to claim it then,
Against the Rights of other Men?

No! he’s unwise that entertains
Such idle notions in his brains:
Yet, actions of his base dishonour,
Have been attempted by Mr. Brunner! *

He saw poor men a bread did get,
Which made his fat guts foam and fret;
With envious eyes he saw their work, –
His heart malicious as a Turk.

Thus the Dolt, “The well I’ll take,
“And by its spring a fortune make;
“None shall have water but those that pay,
“I’ll lock it up and keep the key.

“And by this trade ‘tis pretty clear,
“I shall make some score pounds a year.”
The resolution made, the dunce,
Fancy’s the Well his own at once.

He tries his strength, behold it fails !!!
He now in anger bites his nails;
Our Rights have struck his efforts dead;
He like a bull-rush hangs his head.

His haughty countenance has flown,
Huzza! my boys, the Well’s our own;
Our Rights have overcome the evil,
And JUSTICE reigns above the DEVIL!

*Paul Brunner, was the Lady Well bathkeeper

From the advertisement above (dated 1851) we can see that Mr Monroe established his new baths at 135 Snow Hill and further investigation suggests that this may be the site of Snow Hill Station. The first of the stations at Snow Hill opened in 1852, so we may ask, “what happened to Mr Munroe’s baths?”