London to Seek Roman Method of Heating Swimming Pool

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18544, 18 August 1928, Page 19 (Supplement)

London to Seek Roman Method of Heating Swimming Pool

Rector of St. Clement Danes Raising Fund of £2OOO for Excavation Purposes—Water in Pool Clear as in Time of Hadrian.

JJIDDEX close by the Old Watch House of St Clement Danes' Parish, within fifty yards of the Strand, one of the busiest thoroughfares in the world, is the ancient Roman bath, a pool fed by perennial springs, where Charles Dickens as a bov took an. occasional plunge after finishing his summer day s work in the nearby boot and shoe polish shop. He has mentioned it in “David Copperfield.” George Borrow, author of “The Bible in Spain,” also used to enjoy its cooling depths. And now the archaeologists are planning to explore the sand and gravel surrounding the old relic, built about the time of the Emperor Hadrian in 117-138 A.D., in the hope of ascertaining a trade secret or two, perhaps, of the primitive Roman artisan of eighteen centuries ago, who to-day would be called a “plumber.” First, they will seek further light on how the Romans

water for the* London swimming pool. The Rev W. Pennington-Pickford, rector of St Clement Danes, the original church of which was built by the Danes in 900 A.D., and which was rebuilt by Wren in 1082. who acquired the bath to preserve it for posterity, is raising a £2OOO excavation fund. * Jt is expected that underground, in the rear of the bath, will be found the heating device employed to raise the temperature of the water, which still bubbles into the pool with crystal clearness, as it did sO long ago. London once was as famous a “spa" as Harrogate, Vichy and Baden-Baden are todav It was abundantl - supplied with springs, wells and brooks which ran into the Thames, along whose banks were beautiful gardens, trees and shrubs. For years, as Pep vs tells us, “many doe go travelling up and down ye river,” which was then almost as popular a highway as the modern Great West Road.

constructed water conduits and pipes, and secondly how they heated cold