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Abstract

This article is the product of an unpublished research project which is studying the history of a public service for inexpensive or free baths and showers in the city Saint-Etienne. From the middle of the nineteenth century, when the earliest projects took form, up until the years 1910 which saw the construction of four establishments in the city’s working-class neighbourhoods, there were several projects which raised interesting questions and provoked controversies. Based on Saint-Etienne’s municipal archives, the analysis of the different schemes illustrates the development of public policies for hygiene, policies for ‘low-cost popular baths’ which were often marked by tensions and sometimes by setbacks. The social and political dimensions of the succeeding projects are examined, underlining the large numbers of actors and institutions involved in the promotion and financing of both public and private ventures and in the opposition they sometimes drew forth. The article concludes with a look at the future of these establishments, one that is far from reassuring.

Keywords

• hygiene
• public service
• public administration
• public baths
• bathhouses
• Saint-Étienne