The pool was first built c.1728 as the "Bagnio", a Turkish Bath. On either side of the street are signs for "The Bagnio" and "The New Bagnio". Bagnio House also had a tunnel leading from it. A despairing Bellmour falls into debauchery, and visits a bagnio with Tawdrey. A bagnio is a loan word into several languages (from ). "Bagnio" was a term for a bath or bath-house. Ostensibly a Turkish bath, bagnio had come to mean a disorderly house.