Turkish Baths Harrogate

Harrogate built its Royal Baths in the 1890s, at the height of the spa boom, and opened them in July 1897. The Royal Baths as a whole closed in 1969. The Turkish baths inside them never did, and they are the only part of the building still doing what it was built to do.

That makes this an unusual survival rather than a themed spa. Eleven Victorian or Victorian-style Turkish baths are still open across the British Isles, eight of them in England, and Harrogate is the only English one actually built during Victoria's reign. After a careful restoration of the original decorative scheme in 2003 and 2004 it is generally reckoned the most historically complete working example left.

The architects were Baggallay and Bristowe of London, who won an international competition judged by George Corson against 25 other entries. Baggallay lectured on his own building in 1897 and described hot rooms lined with coloured glazed bricks, a good cold plunge, and decoration "rather more luxurious than is quite usual". It still reads that way.

South from Thirsk on the A168, onto the A1(M), off at Boroughbridge for the A6055, then the A59 west through Knaresborough into Harrogate. It is about 24 miles and 35 to 40 minutes with no traffic, which on a Saturday means allow longer.

The baths are on Parliament Street, HG1 2WH, and the operator points out that both the bus and railway stations are about five minutes' walk. There is no direct train from Thirsk, though, so a car-free trip means changing at York or Leeds.

Parking is the practical problem. Jubilee multi-storey on Union Street is nearest at about five minutes, 8.20 for four hours. Victoria on East Parade is ten minutes and slightly cheaper. The Odeon car park is the cheapest at 4.10 for four hours if you do not mind the walk. Motorcycles and disabled users park free in all of them. Ignore any advice about parking discs: those apply to Scarborough and Whitby, not Harrogate.

The sequence is relax, steam, heat, plunge, repeat. You leave outdoor shoes in a locker, change into swimwear, and start in the Frigidarium, which is the room people remember, with its Italian mosaic floor and Moorish arches. Your visit begins and ends there.

From there it is the steam room, thick with eucalyptus, then three heated chambers worked through in order from about 40 up to 70 degrees, then the cold plunge pool, with showers between stages. Then you go round again as many times as your session allows.

There is a cafe in the building for afterwards, and treatments can be booked separately. Phones, cameras and tablets are banned everywhere in the baths, which does more for the atmosphere than any amount of signage.

The Frigidarium is the set piece and the reason the building matters. Contemporary accounts describe glazed brickwork in tints and patterns, floors in oak parquet or marble mosaic, and a tile historian writing in 2005 called the interior a glazed-brick affair of Moorish arches, columns, screens and terrazzo.

The heat itself is worth noting for how much it has been moderated. The original hot rooms ran at 120, 180 and 210 degrees Fahrenheit. Today's three chambers top out around 70 Celsius, which is about 158 Fahrenheit, so the Victorians were considerably braver.

The other quiet pleasure is that this is a working municipal facility rather than a museum. It is run by North Yorkshire Council, it costs 29 on a weekday, and people who live in Harrogate use it on the way home.

Book ahead. The operator says plainly that entry cannot be guaranteed and places go every 30 minutes, and cancellations need 48 hours' notice. Go Monday to Thursday if you can, since Friday to Sunday is ten pounds more for the same session.

Take swimwear and nothing else you need to worry about, since towels are provided and electricals are banned. Arrive fifteen minutes early: the site says five minutes on one page and fifteen on two others, so give yourself the longer one. Budget three and a half to four hours of parking for a two-hour session, because the changing and drying take longer than you expect.

If access matters, ring 01423 556746 first. The operator publishes nothing at all about step-free access to a Victorian wet-heat building, and that gap is worth closing before you drive over rather than after.