Bathing machines were wooden cabins on a wheeled wagon-like base and were popular in the Victorian era, allowing bathers to change in privacy and step straight down into the sea from the platform. This bathing machine was lowered into the ocean by a winch and cable, and ran on special grooved stone rails. Queen Victoria took her first swim in the sea on the 30th of July 1847, using this bathing machine at Osborne Bay.
This is part of the Volume: IC076 Osborne House, Isle of Wight; within the Series: EHC01/146 English Heritage Reconstruction and Artwork Collection; within the Collection: EHC01 English Heritage(EH):Archive
© Historic England Archive
Illustrator: Gardiner, Frank Joseph Henry
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