The Spring Room
A cold pool and a walled garden
Bath has been wet since the Romans. Our contribution is a small plunge pool in the basement that the building has been filling from the same spring since the 1790s, and a garden that gets the afternoon sun.
The Spring Room
Down the back stairs from the hall, under the middle house, you’ll find a stone-lined plunge pool about four metres by two. A spring feeds it at a steady fourteen degrees and runs out again whether or not anyone is in it. There are brass rails, a bench and a run of hooks that have been there longer than the plumbing.
It is cold. People who swim in it regularly will tell you about this at length, and the ones who have tried it once will tell you something shorter.
It’s open 6.30 to 21.00 for residents only, with six people in the room at a time. The size of the room enforces that limit, and nobody has to count.
Before you go down
- Towels and robes are in the changing alcove, so there is no need to carry them down from your room.
- Anyone under 16 needs an adult in the water with them.
- The floor is 230 years old and the stone is slippery when wet, so walk.
- Tell reception if you have a heart condition, because fourteen degrees is a shock to anyone.
The cedar box and the treatment room
Next to the pool is a sauna, which the staff call the cedar box because that is what it is. It holds four people on one bench, has a thermometer that has been optimistic since 2014, and runs from four in the afternoon.
One treatment room shares the corridor, offering massage and facials from a therapist who comes in Thursday to Sunday. Booking is through reception, usually two days ahead, and the choice is an hour or ninety minutes. There are no packages or programmes.
The walled garden
The garden lies behind all three houses, enclosed on every side by an old brick wall that holds the heat until about nine in the evening. Inside are clipped hedges, a gravel path, two fig trees that shouldn’t do as well as they do, and enough chairs that nobody has to ask for one.
Residents have the garden to themselves until three in the afternoon, and after that it’s shared with anyone eating at The Garden Table. It’s open all year, and in February it’s pleasant for about eleven minutes at a time.
The far wall backs onto a lane, so you will occasionally hear a delivery van discovering that the lane is narrower than it looks.