The Strand Lane Baths

Strand Lane Roman Baths is one of Embankment’s best-kept secrets, perched down an alleyway on Surrey Street a few minutes' walk from Temple Station. One theory is that the baths are the remaining section of a cistern built in 1612 to feed a fountain in the gardens of Old Somerset House, which was then a Royal Palace. Dickens mentioned it in his novel David Copperfield. Still, there’s an argument as to whether or not they are even Roman, as the measurements are typical of the Tudor period, and the bricks used are generally larger than those used throughout the Roman period. Either way, they’re well worth a visit.