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A Brief History of Bathrooms and Baths: From Old Testament to Roman Baths to Victorian Bathrooms

The Amish craft dressing tables, cabinets and other accessories for any modern bathroom. Modern civilized society takes for granted their privileges to claim a bathing ritual. In fact, over the centuries bathing rituals have changed quite vastly from generation to generation. A surprising note to many is the fact that the Victorian and the Edwardian culture (1831-1910) have left luxurious inspirations we still enjoy today.

Once upon a time bathrooms were non-existent and bathing was taboo. Today, hot jet tub baths full of seething bubbles, infused with fragrance, oils and herbs, set in your own private bathroom retreat is one of life’s most sensual pleasures. In the evolution of bathing, there was a time before non-bathing that bathing was a community ritual, with the famous public bath houses in Ancient Rome. Here the Romans enjoyed long lingering communal baths and massages. The beginning of Christianity was the end of public bathing until the Middle Ages saw a resurgence of public and co-ed bathing, replete with musicians and food. Unfortunately these spas soon degraded to brothels and King Henry VIII (28 June 1491 - 28 January 1547) put an end to them and the decline of bathing in general began.

Throughout history the famous invented there own bathing philosophy. Casanova reputedly kept a bathtub built for two by his bedside. To keep up his romantic stamina he consumed several oysters dozen each morning. He kept them in his bathtub. Ben Franklin believed in the health values of a cold bath and indulged in the icy soak frequently. He believed that they hardened you to fight infection and reported that instead of making him ill, actually helped keep him hardy. One of the most famous bathing rituals occurred in Old Testament times with Bathsheba, in a culture that found it acceptable to bathe on ones roof.

Perhaps the fact that during Queen Victoria’s reign hosted a long period of prosperity for the British people caused the world to want to live like the queen. When she became the power on the throne there was no indoor bathroom in Buckingham Palace. She instead introduced a portable bath into her room and people who prior concerned indoor baths vulgar suddenly started converting space in their homes in to indoor bathrooms.

Tags: Bathrooms, baths, dressing tables, edwardian baths, roman baths, vanities, victorian baths

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 11:57 pm and is filed under Bathrooms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.