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Queen's Park

Photograph of the original facade of the spa

From a private collection

Recent photograph of the facade of the spa

From a private collection

History of the spa

By Andrew Bradstreet

In the early part of the nineteenth century there were spas all over Europe as they were highly fashionable. A problem for Brighton was that it lacked the natural water necessary for a spa. There was a natural spring and spa at St.Ann's Well Crescent Gardens in Hove but this was too far away for the 'fashionable folk' in Brighton. Frederick Struve, a research chemist from Saxony, had invented a machine that reproduced the characteristics of natural mineral water using chemicals. He believed there was enough trade in Brighton to set up an establishment and in 1825 Struve opened the pump room of his 'German Spa'.

A choice of waters
The 'Fashionable Chronicle' in the Brighton Gazette provides a description of the building: 'The building consists of a large handsome room fifty or sixty feet in length, and of proportionate breadth and height. A fine flight of steps lead to the noble saloon, on which are placed Ionic columns, supporting a portico in the purest Grecian taste. On the side of the Saloon opposite the entrance runs a counter, behind which are ranged cocks that supply different kinds of waters.' Customers could obtain the waters of Karlsbad, Kesselbrunnen in Bad Ems, Marienbad, Bad Pyrmont and other continental spas.

Queueing for a cure
The curative waters received considerable patronage from the upper classes. In the first season there were 333 subscribers to the spa and in 1835, ten years after opening, Struve obtained the patronage of King William IV. Struve consequently renamed it the 'Royal German Spa'. During the 1830s the spa reached the height of its popularity and had many distinguished visitors. Struve maintained that most of his cures would have no immediate effect and that it would take about a month before his customers would be restored to their full heath. The spa was open between May and November from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. One contemporary writer complained that the pump room was not big enough for the number of people using it and that the number of carriages waiting in the road down to the sea ran into three figures.

From spa to nursery school
By the 1850s the practice of taking waters fell out of fashion and the pump room closed. Struve was now producing bottled mineral water and fizzy drinks. In 1891 another soft drinks firm merged with Struve and called themselves Hooper Struve Ltd. They very successfully continued to manufacture drinks still using the 150 foot well sunk by Struve. Only in the Second World War did the spa stop production when it became a fire watching station and a gas-mask issuing station.

In 1963 the company moved to larger premises, leaving the sa as a storage shed. The pump room became derelict and vandalized. The pump room was demolished in the mid 1970s but thanks to a long public campaign to save it, the spa's neo-classical façade remains. The Royal Spa Nursery School was built on the factory site and opened in 1977. A fire started by vandals destroyed the modern building in 1985 but it was soon rebuilt. The Nursery School continues to this day on this site.

This page was added on 26/06/2006.

Comments about this page

When I was in University College Hospital off Warren Street in the 1950s having my tonsils removed (in those days a lengthy stay in hospital with few visits allowed), my dad brought me in a bottle of Hooper Struve orange squash, just for me. I felt so special as this was a whole bottle of squash just for me, but more so because it was an unknown species to me. I might also add it was a memorable taste even now, and it's so nice to discover it actually existed. You know you can go through life never meeting up with similar memories to your own? Well Done!

By Lynne Harris (11/01/2006)

My mother worked for Hooper Struve in the 1950s when we had school parties at Queen's Park School. I used to supply all the soft drinks that my mum could buy for 3d a bottle: lemon, orange and cherryade.

By Robert Dainty (02/06/2006)

I lived at 21 Park Street from 1945 to 1955 and recall 'acquiring' empty Hooper Struve bottles through the railings of the factory! We would then take them back to a small shop at the bottom of the street and get 3d each for them. A regular source of pocket money!

By Mike Broomfield (29/01/2007)

My great, great grandfather's brother was William Hooper, born in 1803. He was a pharmacist with premises in Russell St, Covent Garden. He was a founder member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and had several inventions to his name. One of his enterprises was to set up a soft drinks company and eventually he merged his interests with a Dr. Struve. I still have in my posession some advertising material for "Hooper's Brighton Selzer Waters".

By Julian Hooper (27/05/2007)

An advertising slogan from the early 1960s had it thus: "You'll approve, she'll approve - Hooper Struve".

By Richard Irving (07/11/2007)

My son was recently doing work experience with his uncle. He dug up a whole Royal German Spa bottle, which was buried in the grounds of Balmoral castle. This led me to this web site as we tried to find out about it!

By D Mitchell (13/02/2008)

In the first decade of the last century my family ran the Hooper Struve operation in the Spa. Robert Barber was foreman, and my Great Uncle Charlie was the 'Bottler'. Amazingly they lived in an apartment in the building. It must have been an astonishing place to live! I remember the building very well in the 1950s - overgrown with ivy.

By John Barber (18/01/2009)