Next Monday, a boxing venue in the East End will bring spas to the people once again. Just as Britain’s long history of public bathing for cleanliness and health was in danger of becoming a distant memory, Spa London is about to open its £1.4 million restoration of East London Turkish baths, built in 1926.

Providing thermal suites that include a sauna, steam baths, monsoon showers, hamam (Turkish bath) and four treatment rooms, Spa London, based in York Hall, Bethnal Green, will be the UK’s first public sector day spa, offering usually pricey pampering at affordable prices.

Serving one of the five most deprived areas in the country, Tower Hamlets, where about one person in six has a long-term health problem, it represents a pioneering return to the values of the mid-Victorian era, when London alone had almost 100 Turkish baths.

From the Romans to the fashionable lidos of the 1930s, hot air and cleansing water were seen as the key to fitness, a panacea for illnesses ranging from gout to skin diseases. However, the arrival of the NHS and penicillin in the 1950s, and the advent of a more evidence-based approach to health, put paid to that, at least in the UK.

Spa London, however, marks the beginning of a shift back to the old days when spas were somewhere you visited for your health. “Poorer members of the community will get an experience like Champneys for just over a fiver,” says Paul Martindill, the acting head of culture at Tower Hamlets Council, which is funding the project along with Greenwich Leisure Ltd, a nonprofit leisure trust with a strong social agenda. A third of Tower Hamlets’ 200,000 residents are Bangladeshi and it has one of the highest population densities in Inner London.

But can a few hours at a spa improve health? The effects of spa treatments such as bathing in hot pools (see panel facing page) are not easily measurable, making their curative appeal limited to the evidence-obsessed medics in the UK. But that’s not the case elsewhere in the world. Go to Eastern Europe, Germany or France and the benefits of hydrotherapy, balneotherapy or thalassotherapy, as spa treatments are also known, are acknowledged and often available to all through NHS-style schemes.

The author and spa expert Alexia Brue learnt a lot about Eastern Europe while researching her book Cathedrals of the Flesh(Bloomsbury, £7.99). “The spa culture endured there because there were mineral water spas dotted across the landscape and the idea of healing through water was more ingrained in its culture; its healthcare system and the mineral-water spas were well integrated. When spas are government subsidised, who wouldn’t take a paid-for holiday from work to take the waters?”

In time, the Spa London team hopes that doctors will refer patients for complementary treatments for serious conditions as well as minor injuries and ailments. Alex Mitchell, the spa manager, says: “GP referrals work well on the Continent. A massage and sauna can often work instead of traditional Western medicine. More people are becoming aware of the benefits of spa treatments to help reduce high blood pressure and to relieve muscle tension, a cause of headaches. We believe there will be indirect health benefits.”

Is this “hot air” or does hard scientific evidence exist to back these claims? In Chile, local people benefit directly from a council-run spa that offers free treatments. With more than 70,000 visitors a year to the spa, based just outside the capital Santiago, visits to local doctors’ surgeries are down by 20 to 30 per cent, as are referrals from the surgeries to the hospitals. Spa Aqua Colina has physiotherapists, chiropractors, water therapy and aerobics classes to help improve the health of its visitors. The majority of people who attend are housewives and pensioners, but there are also people with diabetes, obesity, heart problems, depression and some recovering from injuries. Whether it’s the curative effects of the treatments themselves that do the job, or an indirect stress-relieving or psychosomatic effect, public spas can have an effect.

Spa London is aiming to attract people, particularly women and over60s, who may find the gym too active, says Martindill. “Because the pulse gets elevated by the changing temperatures in the thermal suites a spa gives the heart a workout without the stresses of the gym.” It is not, however, he adds, a replacement for physical activity.

Spa London appears to be part of a revival of public bathing. Thermae Bath Spa reintroduced Roman-style bathing on an impressive 21st-century scale last year in Somerset and full restorations, including a main pool and thermal spa suites, are planned for the Grade II listed baths, built in 1928, at Marshall Street in Soho and for the Victoria Baths in Manchester. Old-fashioned Victorian Turkish baths still exist in Carlisle, Swindon, Edinburgh and Glasgow. London has the Porchester Baths in Queensway (1929) and Ironmonger Row in Islington (1938). And in Harrogate and Sheffield Victorian baths have been sensitively restored.

And if Spa London is a success? “We aim to roll out a set of suites across London,” says Andy McCabe, a director of Greenwich Leisure.

Spa London: 020-8709 5845; spa-london.org

The science behind spa treatments

Aches and pains

Studies indicate that inflammation in the joints from rheumatism or arthritis can be relieved of pain if exercised in warm water (hydrotherapy). The warmth relaxes muscles and tendons which, when tensed, produce pain, and buoyancy supports the joints. This means that the joint can move freely, allowing surrounding muscles to build up again, and protect damaged areas.

Circulatory effects

There’s evidence that water pressure squeezes the body’s outer blood vessels, forcing blood into the chest and heart areas; the effect is increased by exercising in water. This increase in thoracic load is believed, by continental researchers, to encourage a healthy heart. Bathing in warm water may reduce blood pressure because it makes the larger blood vessels dilate, and hot water increases heart rate. However, whether these effects are beneficial or not is debatable.

Skin

The mineral waters and muds used in spa treatments are most likely to have an effect by transferring heat and minerals into the skin. Worldwide, spas are used to treat conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. The use of sunlight and water-based treatments for psoriasis is known as climatotherapy. A recent study published in the Journal of Dermatological Treatment indicated that it was an effective treatment.

Stress

Numerous studies show that massage brings many psychological benefits, notably the relief of stress, beyond the immediate effect of loosening muscles.

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