Overview
Thermae Bath Spa reopened public bathing in Bath's naturally hot spring water in 2006, nearly three decades after the old municipal baths closed. A modern New Royal Bath works with the restored Cross Bath and older spa buildings, keeping the city's founding use alive rather than treating it only as a museum story.
What this place is
The spa joins a modern bathing building and rooftop pool to old treatment buildings and the separate Cross Bath, all supplied by Bath's hot mineral springs.
People and events
The city, public funders, designers, builders and bath workers carried the long delayed project through problems with water and materials before it opened in 2006.
How it was used
Visitors bathe, swim and receive treatments in spring water, continuing the central activity that drew Roman, medieval and Georgian visitors to Bath.
What survives
The eighteenth-century Cross Bath and older spa walls survive beside the curved stone and glass New Royal Bath, with the spring still feeding active pools.
Why it mattered
Thermae mattered because it restored living public use of the hot springs after a long closure and connected Bath's present economy to the reason the city first grew.
History checked 16 August 2026 against the named sources below.
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