Carlisle Turkish Baths - Worth Saving
Jenny UrwinIf you have read my short history of Turkish Baths, you may remember Kitty Wilkinson. She opened her home during a cholera outbreak in 1830s Liverpool, allowing neighbours to wash themselves and their clothes, helping to reduce the spread of disease.
By 1883, public washhouses and Turkish baths were well established across the country. That same year, the Carlisle Baths subcommittee visited Liverpool to see these facilities in action.
The rest, as they say, is history.
A brief history of Carlisle Turkish Baths
In 1884, Carlisle Public Baths opened, with land set aside next to it for Turkish baths. The wait would be long. It wasn’t until 1909 that the Carlisle Turkish Baths finally opened their doors.
Over the years, the baths have faced repeated threats of closure. In the 1930s, closure was proposed but scrapped after local doctors voiced their support. From 1950 to 1959, the baths were closed entirely. In the 1990s, they were threatened again, but a group of regular users successfully petitioned to keep them open.
Despite being a listed building and well used by the public, Carlisle Council voted to close the site in 2018. This decision was reinforced by a further vote in October 2022, and the baths have remained closed since.
The Friends of Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths group was formed to campaign for reopening, and continues that work today. Julie Minns, Labour MP for Carlisle and founder of the group, is still raising the issue in Parliament, highlighting the physical and mental health benefits the baths provided to regular users.
If you would like to support the campaign, you can read more about their vision for the building here: https://carlislebaths.co.uk/our-vision/
My experience of Carlisle Turkish Baths
My experience of the Carlisle Turkish Baths is, sadly, quite limited.
Growing up in West Cumbria, I had no idea they even existed. Looking back now, it makes me feel frustrated. It’s such a beautiful place, and yet it wasn’t promoted as the asset it clearly was to the community or to tourists.
It makes me a little angry, if I’m honest.
I only discovered them after moving back to Cumbria in 2021, which gave me about a year to experience them before they closed. Enough to understand what they were, but not enough to feel like I truly made the most of them.
What it was like inside Carlisle’s Turkish Baths
The Turkish Baths are located on James Street. To access them, you first had to go into the now-demolished swimming baths next door, tell staff where you were heading, then head back outside and further down the road to a separate entrance.
Yes, it was a bit of a faff.
Once inside, you would go up a short flight of stairs into the main relaxation and changing area. From memory, there were around ten curtained cubicles, each with a reclining bed.
What stood out most was the detail. The glazed painted tiles across the ceiling, the decorative pillars, the stained glass windows. There was a level of care and craftsmanship that feels largely missing from modern buildings.
In the centre of the room sat the plunge pool. It always made me smile hearing people easing themselves in, those little “ooh, ooh, ooh” moments, contrasted with the occasional confident plunge.
To the left were the heated rooms, gradually increasing in temperature as tradition dictates. There was a steam room on one side, a sauna on the other, and both warm and cold showers.
Turkish Baths are a place of community
Like Porchester Spa in London, there was always a real sense of community.
The more you went, the more familiar faces you recognised. Conversations flowed easily in the steam room and sauna, often about everyday life, sometimes about much more.
What surprised me at the time was that there were often more men than women attending. Perhaps that stood out because of how spa culture is often portrayed today.
But when you listen to Julie Minns speaking in Parliament, many of the examples she shares are from men, and how important the Turkish Baths were to them.
Why places like this matter
When you look at men’s mental health statistics today, they are sobering.
In 2024, the male suicide rate was 17.1 per 100,000, compared to 5.6 per 100,000 for females. Men aged 50 to 54 had the highest rate at 26.8 per 100,000. (Source: Samaritans)
It makes you stop and think.
What if spaces like the Carlisle Turkish Baths were still open? Not as a luxury, but as somewhere to go. Somewhere warm. Somewhere quiet. Somewhere to sit, talk, or just be.
A place away from alcohol or general social pressure. A place to reset.
Turkish baths have always been about more than heat.
They are about community, routine, and giving people a space to look after themselves, physically and mentally.
Carlisle had that.
And hopefully, one day, it will again.
