The Baths at Brighton

BPC00018

Copperplate engraving by S Rawle from the original drawing by J Nixon, published in the European Magazine 1803. The baths were built in Pool Valley in 1769 by the architect and builder Robert Golden for the medical entrepreneur and seawater enthusiast, Dr John Awsiter. Dr Awsiter promoted indoor bathing in warmed seawater as being very beneficial to health. The baths were later taken over by Mr Woods and renamed the Royal Original Baths. They were then taken over by Mr Creak whose wife, Alice, continued the business after his death. In 1861 they were demolished to make way for the enlargement of Brill’s Baths, at 2 King’s Road.

Illustrated in:

Royal Pavilion: An Episode in the Romantic by Clifford Musgrave. Leonard Hill Books, 1959, opposite p 3.

Old Brighton, Old Preston, Old Hove by Frederick Harrison and James North, 44 Market Street, Brighton, 1937, p 21.

Life in Brighton: from the earliest times to the present by Clifford Musgrave. John Hallewell Publications, 2nd edition, 1981, after p 64.

Old Brighton: A Collection of Prints, Paintings and Drawings by Eileen Hollingdale. George Nobbs Publishing, 1979, p 59.

Georgian Brighton by Sue Berry. Phillimore, 2005, p 26.

Brave New City: Brighton & Hove Past, Present, Future by Anthony Seldon. Pomegranate Press, 2002, p 37.

A Peep into the Past: Brighton in the Olden Time by J G Bishop. The Author, 1880, opposite p 212, and in the 1892 edition, opposite p 227.

The European Magazine, in which this print was published, ran from 1782 to 1826 in London. It was originally published as The European Magazine and London Review and its founding editor was James Perry.

Images of Brighton 102 and illustrated on page 78.

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Pool Valley. The baths at Brighton. BPC00018

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Pool Valley. The baths at Brighton. BPC00018 50.820125, -0.138315 Click here to view image