Plans for the Medical Fund flagship building had been in the pipeline for a number of years. The committee paid £999 for a plot of Rolleston estate land when it came on the market in 1885 but it was another six years before construction began. Built in 1891 and opened the following year, Milton Road Baths soon became the hub of the Medical Fund activities. With a grand, glass covered entrance in Faringdon Road, the red brick building was designed by Swindon architect J.J. Smith at a cost of £10,000. Keeping up with the times, the Medical Fund committee installed both Turkish and Russian baths. The Turkish bath with dry air heated rooms, followed by a full body wash and massage was seen as being ‘of great value as a sanitary and cleansing agent.’ The Russian baths were a variation on this theme, a vapour bath created by the throwing of water on hot stones, followed by a massage that involved being hit with a besom made of birch twigs and leaves. ...