Ironmonger Row Turkish Baths

The thing I love about the Turkish baths at Ironmonger Row is that if you’re Turkish you get to use some of the facilities for free! It’s not that I’m Turkish and can benefit from this (because I’m not… Turkish that is) it’s just the wonderful sense of patriotism and loyalty to fellow countrymen that appeals. I wonder if it would work in an English caff on the Costa del Sol-perhaps they might give a genuinely English holidaymaker a free sausage? Well it certainly seems worth a try. Anyway, on to more important things.

The Turkish baths are, unsurprisingly, located on Ironmonger Row near Old Street. The Baths include a steam room, a series of three hot rooms of different temperatures, marble slabs for body scrubbing and one of those ice cold plunge pools that can make a grown man scream. The baths also have two relaxation areas catering for every kind of resting requirement. One is a resting room with proper beds and the other is a television room. The sessions are a maximum of three hours long and you don’t have to book in advance, you can just show up. The baths runs both mixed and non-mixed sessions so if you’re a bit nervous when it comes to stripping off around the opposite sex you can start with a non-mixed session.

There’s also a sauna and a number of qualified therapists offering a range of treatments that compliment the whole Turkish Bath experience. Although it may sound fairly unexceptional in terms of experience, it really is quite incredible the effect of a hot sauna or steam, a plunge in ice cold water and a proper scrub down will have on the soul.  The Tukish Bath dates all the way back to the Romans and we know what superhuman conquerors they were!

The Turkish Baths are part of a complex that along with the pool also offers the following activities: aqua aerobics, children’s parties, gym, holiday programme, junior activities and swimming lessons (www.aquaterra.org/ironmonger-row-baths).