Dear Mary…
Q. I design clothes and have rented a small shop in west London from which to purvey my wares while maintaining my primary residence on the Welsh borders. I am in London for only three days a week but am trying to keep costs down. I therefore have installed a day bed in the back room of the shop which I find perfectly comfortable. There is a lavatory downstairs and if I want to have a shower I can do so at the Lansdowne Club. The trouble is that my subscription is coming up for renewal and I am wondering whether I can cut costs even further by going to ‘public baths’. Is there such a thing in the Notting Hill area or are they a thing of the past?
Name withheld, Hay-on-Wye
A. Kensington Leisure Centre, Walmer Road, off Ladbroke Grove still provides a shower facility and will allow you to avail yourself at £1 a time, although you have to bring your own towel. May I suggest that you sidestep the chore altogether by purchasing a bumper pack of baby wipes and simply address trouble spots only in the privacy of your shop’s back room? You can give yourself a full body hose-down when you return to the country. The late social leader Lady (Charlotte) Bonham Carter and her husband Edgar were always presentable but rarely took a bath while staying at their Bayswater home, but made full use of the facilites in their estate at Wyck in Hampshire.
Q. I am shortly to attend a fancy dress party. Following the furore over Prince Harry’s choice of fancy dress outfit and his SS armband, I would like to seek your advice as to whether my own proposed choice of costume could possibly give any offence.
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