“The streets of London have their map, but our passions are uncharted. What are you going to meet if you turn this corner?”
Virginia Woolf
London is my place in the World. There is always a place to see, a corner to find, a hiding statue or even a Roman Bath in the middle of the City.
Walking down my way to the Temple Station I crossed the road, went down the Surrey Steps and at number 5, Strand Lane there it was:THE ROMAN BATH!
The first time the bath was even mentioned it was at a book in 1784 by John Pinkerton, describing a 'fine antique bath' in the cellar of a house in 'Norfolk Street in the Strand. Charles Knight wrote in London (1842) of the "Old Roman Spring Bath", at Strand Lane – suggesting that it shared a source with the nearby Holy Well, just north of the site of the church of St Clement Danes. He noted (of the water) "it is clearly natural, and not artificial, and sparkles as clear as crystal".
In David Copperfield (1849–50), Dickens speaks of the old Roman Bath "at the bottom of one of the streets out of the Strand", in which Copperfield had many cold plunges.What really fascinates me is that today in the 21th century while walking in the streets of London you can just find something like this.
For some reason this really makes me happy because is at this moments that my passion for History grows.