Dining room at Smedley's Hydro

A carte-de-visite showing the dining room at John Smedley's 'Hydropathic Establishment' at Matlock in Derbyshire.

While on honeymoon in Switzerland John Smedley (1803-1879) became seriously ill and had to return to England. He recuperated at a hydropathic establishment in Yorkshire and later took the waters at Cheltenham. Hydropathy became the greatest interest in his life and in 1853 he opened his own hydropathic establishment at the Derbyshire town of Matlock, which had developed as a spa once the beneficial properties of its thermal springs were discovered.

Smedley's Hydro closed in the 1950s, and the building was purchased in 1955 by Derbyshire County Council to use as its headquarters.

Photographed by J. Barber of Matlock.