Hi Ged, great image, many thanks!
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I've since learned that John Foster's George's baths (opened 1829) replaced the Bathing Houses (shown in the painting) - which Liverpool Corporation purchased back in 1796 for £4000. The Bathing Houses are recorded on Eyes' 1765 map, though were built some years earlier. They remained in use until 1816, when the first stone for Princes' Dock was laid. About the same time a Floating Bath was launched, on the 11th June 1816, which was moored nearly opposite George's Dock parade. Presumably, this was used until George's Baths (pictured) was opened 13 years later.
The Bathing Houses (painting) provided a ring-fenced, open-air enclosure, for high-tide salt-water bathing. It's location was close to the North Shore, which was a celebrated stretch of beach, used for salt-water bathing. Women and men bathed separately within the fenced enclosure; women on the right-side of the painting, and men on the left. The adjoined houses provided a series of covered pools which were filled with filtered, salt-water; both hot and cold.
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