Part 6 (1/2)
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 gla.s.s in ceiling-lights or windows, and at night by coloured gla.s.s 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 ”b.u.t.tons” 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 pa.s.s as fair in ordinary cases, looks coa.r.s.e 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 cla.s.sical designation, I cannot but think that it is to be avoided, and that fillings-in should be made with tesserae 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 faence 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 part.i.tions, in either an Oriental style or otherwise. It is not easy to make small dwarf part.i.tions, 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. .h.i.therto 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 s.p.a.cious 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 cla.s.sic one at Bognor in Suss.e.x. 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.
[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 tesserae, any simple patterns being executed in light tints. Delicate tints, such as strawberry, pea green, and peac.o.c.k 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.
FURNIs.h.i.+NG.
The work of the upholsterer in fitting up a Turkish bath comprises the complete furnis.h.i.+ng 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 princ.i.p.al requirements that need consideration, the remaining furnis.h.i.+ng 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.