It was the Romans who made a showpiece of the hot springs in Bath, their lavish bathing complex built around them, dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva, setting the stage for the slickest of rituals: plunging from frigidarium (cold pool) to caldarium (hot bath and steam treatments) before being oiled up and scraped down with a no-nonsense-looking ‘strigil’. Fast forward to the ‘season’ in Georgian Bath, as the city basked in its golden era, and sedan chairs could be found weaving through the cobbled streets delivering their wealthy passengers for a dip at the 12th-century King’s Bath or perhaps the smaller Queen’s Bath, before winding up at the chandelier-clad Pump Room. It was here that they’d quaff the mineral-rich waters and rub shoulders with the stream of aristocracy, artists and authors who flocked to Bath, each hoping to reap the rewards of its rumoured healing waters. The bar was set.
This is a city that has form when it comes to spas, the OG of wellness for nearly two millennia, and still innovating today. In 2023, the historic lido Cleveland Pools, built in 1815, reopened after a 20-year restoration project to great applaud (although it’s currently closed due to flooding) and The Francis Hotel on Queen Square – the former home of 18th-century architect John Wood the Elder – is soon to open a long-awaited thermal spa as part of the hotel’s multimillion-pound renovation. But dotted throughout Bath’s honey-coloured streets are plentiful other boltholes and retreats designed to relax and rejuvenate, some where the treatments are results-driven and others where a hedonistic pleasure is the only aim. Here are our favourite spas in and around Bath.
No.15 by GuestHouse, Bath
Winding down the staircase to the basement of this hotel, you’ll find what feels like a smart townhouse snug to wait in, with silhouettes of Georgian caricatures above the fireplace and a dresser lined with vintage medicinal bottles harking back to Bath’s heyday as a place for healing (among them the alarming-sounding Acidum Tartaricum). No.15 is big on couples’ rituals, with the Copper Room as the scene-stealer, involving bathing in a copper tub with magnesium-rich salts, drink in hand, chased by a side-by-side massage, the choice of a eucalyptus-infused foot massage or a bespoke facial, and a scalp massage to finish. But the other, less flamboyant treatments are just as indulgent – the 60-minute ‘Lessen Your Stress’ is the ticket after a day pounding the streets, combining a targeted massage and facial, all with organic and vegan products from Pink Boutique. The spa backs onto the oasis-like Henrietta Park, but don’t leave without striding down the grand Great Pulteney Street, on which the hotel sits, letting yourself bask in any Jane Austen fantasies.
Address: No.15 by GuestHouse, 15 Great Pulteney St, Bath BA2 4BS
Website: guesthousehotels.co.uk/no-15-bath/
The Pig, The Pig near Bath, Pig Hotel, Potting Shed, Voya, seaweedJake Eastham
The Pig near Bath
Here’s one for the spa refusenik, the person for whom flopping around from dawn until dusk in a robe and slippers on marbled floors isn’t for them. Instead, a 20-minute drive out of town in the rolling Mendip Hills, guests can make a beeline to one of The Pig’s two Potting Shed treatment rooms for a quick fix. Blissfully bucolic and stripped back with the sounds from the walled kitchen garden as a soundtrack, each one is kitted out with butler sinks, gingham blankets and terracotta pots blooming with geraniums. Whether it’s a hot stone massage or brightening facial you opt for, Tribe517 products – made in a 300-year-old barn on a South Wales farm, with honey from its onsite beehives – take centre stage. And when the spellbinding 90 minutes or so is up, it’s back into the kitchen garden to suss out what might have been foraged for lunch.
