Turkish Baths

The Turkish Baths in Harrogate are among the finest and best preserved Victorian Turkish baths still operating in Britain. Opened in 1897 at the height of Harrogate's fame as a spa town, they were built by the local council to capitalise on the popularity of taking the waters and have remained in continuous use ever since, with only short closures for restoration.

The interiors are spectacular. Visitors pass through a sequence of hot and cold rooms decorated with Islamic-style arches, vivid Burmantofts terracotta, painted ceilings and intricate mosaic floors in shades of ochre, blue and green. The traditional bathing circuit takes in the tepidarium, the hotter calidarium and laconium, the steam-filled hammam and a plunge pool of bracingly cold water, finishing with a rest in the cooling room.

The baths sit on Parliament Street in the centre of Harrogate, next to the Royal Baths building and a short walk from the Valley Gardens, the Pump Room Museum and the town's famous tea rooms. Sessions are usually mixed or single-sex on a rota, and booking ahead is strongly advised. The building is a Grade II listed reminder of the town's Victorian heyday and a genuinely unusual public-transport-accessible day out.