Early C17 cistern to Old Somerset House (aka The Roman Bath)

Summary

Cistern of early C17 date and later C17 vaults. Opened as a bathhouse in late C18.

Reasons for Designation

The early C17 cistern to Old Somerset House (also known as The Roman Bath) at 5 Strand Lane is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Historic and architectural interest: as a rare surviving example of a Jacobean cistern, providing archaeological evidence for the gardens of Old Somerset House. It also provides insights into the commercial development of bath houses in the C18 and antiquarian interests and attitudes of the period;
* Group value: with the adjoining listed buildings St Clements Watch House, and Nos. 33 and 34 Surrey Street to which it was once linked via existing C17 vaults.

History

The origins of the Roman Bath have long been a matter of conjecture. However, an article by Professor Michael Trapp in 2012 shows that the bath almost certainly originated as a cistern supplying water to a grotto fountain representing Mount Parnassus, constructed in 1612 in the Privy Garden of Old Somerset House. The fountain was built for Anne of Denmark, the queen of James I and was the work of the French hydraulic engineer and garden designer, Salomon de Caus (1576-1626). It was demolished by the 1640s. Analysis of the bricks lining the cistern suggested a date range of between 1550 and 1650. It was supplied with water by a pump located at the end of the terrace in the garden.

In the C18, the cistern was opened as a commercial plunge bath. In 1776 it was advertised in the 2 November edition of the Daily Advertiser as a ‘Cold Bath at No. 33 Surry-street now open’. Exact attribution is confused by the presence of another bath located just to the south, at the rear of 32 Surrey Street, known as Essex baths. By now the bath was fed, unintentionally, by an underground spring. The first mention of a Roman origin for the baths is probably in Robson’s London Directory for 1838 which refers to a ‘Roman Spring Bths’ on Strand Lane. The Roman attribution no doubt added to the commercial attraction of the bath and in 1865 it was announced in The Lancet that ‘The Old Roman bath is Reopened with great Improvements’. The site remained in use as a baths until it was purchased in 1922 by Reverend William Pennington-Bickford who removed the marble and tiles decorating the main chamber and carried out some small scale archaeological excavations. In 1945-7 ownership of the bath passed to the National Trust on condition that it was administered by the Greater London Council (succeeded by LB Westminster on the abolition of the GLC).

The bath has literary connections to Charles Dickens being mentioned in David Copperfield (1849-50).

Details

The cistern is set into the floor of a vaulted brick chamber, probably of late-C17 date, under a late-C19 extension to 33 Surrey Street. (No. 5 Strand Lane is single storey, with the extension to No. 33 Surrey Street above it; this extension is not included in the listing). It is entered via an arched entrance on Strand Lane and the vault is lit by a large arched window.

The cistern is 4.7m long by 1.9m wide with a semi-circular south-west end and straight north-eastern end and is constructed of wide and shallow red bricks laid in English bond.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

428304

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Bradley, S, The Buildings of England: London 6 Westminster, (2003), 371
Pre-Construct Archaeology, , Report No: R11125 in Strand Lane 'Roman Bath: The Results from the Sampling and Analysis of the Building Material from the Bath and Associated Structures, (November 2011)
Trapp, M, Studies in the History of Gardens & Designed Landscapes Vol. 32, Issue 4 in The Denmark House Helicon: Iconography and Surviving Traces, (2012)
Trapp, M, National Trust Historic Houses and Collections Annual in New Light on the Strand Lane 'Bath', (2012)

Other
Roger Bowdler, The 'Roman Bath' at 5 Strand Lane, City of Westminster, April 1993,

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