So why were public baths such a burning issue?

 

The years of late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were a time of intense industrialisation and urbanisation that transformed Great Britain into the most powerful nation in the world.

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However rapid growth, over-crowding and poor sanitation meant that the cities and industrial towns became breeding grounds for disease.

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Epidemics of cholera and typhus were far from uncommon and the living conditions that gave rise to them eventually prompted action by concerned citizens, and then by Government, to address the vital issue of public health.