The Marine Baths were built in 1810 by Rice Williams, Esq. a medical doctor, at the north end of Marine Terrace. By this date salt water bathing had acquired a reputation for curing a wealth of medical ills, and bath-houses were being built for those who did not want to or could not brave the open sea.

The bath-house offered more privacy, containing a series of private rooms each furnished with a 6ft bath, lined with Dutch tiles and equipped with hot and cold salt water taps. The rooms were also furnished with a fireplace, which in addition to the hot water taps would have made se-water bathing much more palatable to those of a less robust disposition. the building also offered a cold plunge pool, a shower bath and one of the latest inventions to Britain at the time, a vapour bath.

Water was brought into the basement via an iron pipe which ran out into Cardigan Bay as far as was need to take it from a 'rocky, sandless portion of the ocean'. A large boiler, capable of holding 500 gallons, heated the water before pumping it to the ground floor baths. On the first floor were a number of bedrooms for invalids who wished to stay, while a ground floor living room was provided with a bow window allowing advantage to be taken of 'an expansive view of the sea, as well as of the distant objects, and alpine wonders, before dilated on in the description of the Castle Ruins'.

The baths were later taken over by Lewis Lewis, but closed in 1892 and were subsequently demolished to make way for an extendion and improvement of the northern stretch of promenade.

During the tidal storm of 3rd/4th January 2014, a breach in the fromnt of the sea wall revealed the remains of basement walls relating to the bath house.

S Fielding 10th January 2014

Ref: T E Lewis 'The New Aberystwyth Guide' 1824