Underground London - Strand "Roman" bath

There is a hidden bathhouse just off The Strand, in London. Located in Strand Lane, it is known as the Roman bathhouse, although it isn't actually Roman.

To get there from The Strand, you walk past the old entrance to the Piccadilly railway, 

then follow this sign

The entrance is through the gate on the right -

According to the National Trust, prior to use as a bath, it was the remains of a cistern built in 1612 to feed a fountain in the gardens of the old Somerset House, then a royal palace. After a long period of neglect and decay the baths were brought back into use in the 1770s as a public cold plunge bath.

"The bath chamber is covered by a full brick and stone vault and contains the bath and a 1920s settling tank built at the eastern end. The bath is made of shallow, wide Tudor bricks, with some patched repairs made from frogged bricks dating after 1750. The brickwork of the walls and vaults hasn’t been officially dated, but most probably dates from the 18th century."

The bath is not normally open to the public, but from 22 May to 2 July 2025, it is housing an audio-visual presentation entitled The River's Stomach (Songs of Empire). I actually found this very weird and won't go into details here. But that is the reason there are plastic "Roman eels" in the bath!

See more on the National Trust page and also on IanVisits and his more recent blog which features the art presentation.