Wren Okonkwo
Runs the dawn session and the brass tally frame. Keeps a notebook of every hundred-length swim and writes the names onto the centenary board herself.
The stewards
The people on the deck
Six stewards run the deck: they time steam turns, count plunges, fold the blankets and settle every queue dispute since 1934. Their word is the house rule.
Hal Marsh
Ottilie's great-grandson. Refuses to correct the slow clock, will explain why at length if you let him.
Petra Lyle
Keeper of the ceramic clock and the eucalyptus question. Answers "plain fog" without judgement.
Dov Arieli
Counts every descent out loud, in the same steady voice, whether you take thirty seconds or nine.
June Ferro
Folds the blankets, dims the lamps, and has never once spoken above a murmur on duty.
Sammas Bell
Tends Bertha and Ada. Appears on deck only when the water misbehaves, which is the correct order of things.
The steward's oath
Written in the 1954 manual and recited, half-seriously, at every winter staff supper: "Heat and cold in their order. The count spoken truly. The blanket folded. The clock left slow." June Ferro keeps the original page framed in the Resting Hall.
Demonstration: the stewards are invented; any resemblance to real bathhouse staff is wishful thinking.
Elsewhere in the house
Five rooms
The Pools
Cascade, Meridian, Mosaic, Plunge, Resting. In that order.
41 °CThe Water
One spring, honestly described, never sweetened.
Since 1926History
Ottilie Marsh, the ward years, the slow clock.
8 ritualsTreatments
Hands, heat, salt and birch, priced plainly.
ArchiveThe Journal
Longer notes from the stairwell cabinet.
VisitPlan a Visit
Trains, towpaths, punts and what to bring.