Nevill's New Turkish Baths

This building and the baths beneath were constructed in 1894-5 by G. Harold Elphick for Henry and James Forder Nevill and opened by City of London Alderman Treloar on 5th February 1895.

Architectural journals of the day described the baths in glowing terms, praising both the overall decorative scheme and quality of fittings, and also the imaginative manner in which a very small ground level area was utilised. In 1895, before many of the streets in the area were re-named, the main entrance to the baths was in Alderman's Walk (now Bishopsgate Churchyard).

The baths themselves were partly underneath the original New Broad Street House (now demolished), and partly underneath Alderman's Walk. The entrance forms part of a kiosk in the upper portion of which were water tanks, masked by a Moorish style wall, and surmounted by a similarly styled onion shaped cupola, decorated with a star and crescent.

Entering the kiosk, the bather went down a winding staircase, lined by tin-glazed earthenware (faïence) to the entrance vestibule, where he bought his ticket.

At the end of July 1908, the two Nevills floated a company, Nevill's Turkish Baths Ltd, with an capital of £75,000. In addition to the New Broad Street Baths, the company was to 'acquire and take over as going concerns the business of proprietors or keepers of Turkish, Electrical, Light, and other Baths and appliances, carried on by James Forder Nevill' at Harrow Road, Northumberland Avenue, Commercial Road East, High Street Whitechapel, Wool Exchange, and Railway Approach at London Bridge.

At this time, the lease on the New Broad Street basement still had 46 years to run at an annual rent (in 1908) of £395. The baths remained open until 1954 until the expiry of the lease when Nevill's decided not to renew it.

After a period of use for storage the baths were converted as a restaurant although that business has now closed. The building itself is listed Grade II.

More details are on this page from which much of the above has been gleaned. www.victorianturkishbath.org/6directory/AtoZEstab/London/NewBroad/NewBroadSF.htm