Melbourne Bathhouse/ Melbourne Bath House

On Thursdays I only have one class that finishes at 10am, so my Uni day starts and ends pretty damned early. After the noted crazy week and a half of non-stop work, I was more than ready to leave campus at ten and reward myself with a little mid-morning break. I have been planning for ages to go and have a bath at the Melbourne City Baths (basically for a year!), but for some reason there is always something that has held me up. I had heard that you could bathe in claw-footed baths that were original to the old building from the turn of the twentieth century. I have a bath at home, but my hot water cylinder is so small that there is no way to fill it with hot water unless you were to boil twenty pots of water on a hot plate. So today was the day that I would make it the Baths, regardless.

I turned up and met the lovely owner of the Melbourne Bathhouse, Mari-Ann. She is basically the visionary who realised the opportunity in the rusting old baths in the storehouses of the Baths complex. So she has worked with the Melbourne City Baths people to renovate and update all of the old baths and facilities. There was a tiered class system at the old baths, back when the complex was not actually a 'swimming' venue but a place that could service the hygienic needs of a typhoid-friendly city that was colloquially known as "Smellbourne". The contemporary Bathhouse is located in the original '2nd class' bathhouse area.

I am so impressed. In a large open wing of the building, there are all of these private chambers, each containing a clean white claw foot bath. There is beautiful tiling on the floor, and a chair to put your clothes and things. You can either have a simple bath without additions or else a 'wellness soak', which is the bath infused with giant bags of herbs and flowers. Mari-Ann described the experience as being immersed in a giant cup of tea. I went for the cheap option today (it was incredibly cheap!), and spent the next half an hour escaping a cold wintry day in a happy warm zone. It was exactly what I needed to do today.

Also in the bathhouse is a beautiful and deep Jewish baptismal pool in a chamber called the Mikvah Room (original to the bathhouse), which has been renovated and is still used for its original purpose from time to time. Mari-Ann mentioned today that the old first class bath quarters is currently being converted into a Turkish hamam! So I am filled with excitement about the future of the Bathhouse. Afterwards, I floated through the inner city life of the CBD as if I was in an altered state of consciousness. I am going to come back to this place very quickly - I have literally booked an appointment for Monday!