Postcard with vertical text on short side and large image horizontally on the right. The text names the baths and gives opening hours. The image is a coloured artist's impression of the (labelled) cooling-room. Its floor is covered in brightly coloured carpets and in the centre is a small decorative pool and fountain. Arranged round the main part of the room are various easy chairs, settees, coffee tables, and potted plants. On either side is a curtained area with additional couches lining the walls. An opening to the rear shows a plunge pool and beyond that several archways leading to the (labelled, but not seen) hot rooms. A small circular inset, top right, is labelled Shampooing room with a number of not easily distinguishable shampooing slabs.
A scaled floor plan of the baths with labels indicating the various areas and rooms. These include (from the entrance) cubicles for removing shoes with a boot store. There's also a WC, a Committee Room for company directors' meetings, an Office with counter, coffee maker, and lockers. The Frigidarium has a Hair Cutting room leading off, with other areas (as described in the postcard text). Not seen on the postcard is an Attendants' room on the right, divans on either side of the Plunge Bath, and WCs, Douche, and Lavatorium (washroom). The plunge continues (through an opening in a plate glass wall) into the Tepidarium, beyond which is the Calidarium. There is also a Stokery and two boilers. The plan has been coloured to show how the wet, dry, and mixed areas are separated from each other.
The front and back pages of a brown-printed folded card advertising the baths. On the front is a central circular sketch of part of the cooling-room, and on the back is a calendar for 1885.
The inside of the folded card is treated as a single page when the fold is held horizontally. Centrally to the right is a panel indicating that there are areas with temperatures of 120, 135, 160, 210, and 250 degrees fahrenheit, that the bath has been designed by C J Phipps and "is the most luxurious of its kind in London", that it is open daily from 8.00 am till 9.00 pm (but only until 1.00 pm on Sundays), and that the charge is 2/6 or One Guinea for ten tickets (a saving of 4/-). Surrounding the panel on the card are five rough sketches: an attendant placing shoes in the boot locker, with a second attendant behind the counter; general scene in the cooling-room; someone lying on a divan; two bathers being shampooed; three bathers, one of whom is entering the plunge.
#OnThisDay, 8 January 1885, the Savoy #TurkishBath opened. It was the first in #London to be fully lit by electricity, & occupied the whole 150ft x 46ft basement of Lancaster House. Some of those associated with the Gilbert & Sullivan operas, eg, Grossmith and Cellier, were bathers & shareholders 🗃️
![Advertisement from the London Daily Chronicle (22 December 1860) announcing the forthcoming opening of the baths, under the name S[amuel] Curry. There are two prices: during the daytime 2/6d, and from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm 1/-.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:x5l2x75jny3cocqmgprgdjy7/bafkreifmmyu6ec7y477eudcahsmkaqf5cgti7ebq5g5skbbiei3taljyti)
