Beneath the cliffs of the Avon Gorge, warm mineral water once rose naturally through the rocks.

The spring was recorded as early as 1480, when William Worcester described the water as milky and as warm as the waters at Bath.

By the eighteenth century, Hotwells had become a fashionable spa. Visitors came to drink Bristol Water, as it became known, while bottles were sent across Britain and around the world.

But the water was only part of the attraction.

The rocks of the Avon Gorge contained clear quartz crystals known as Bristol Diamonds. Visitors searched for them as they explored the gorge; the travel writer Celia Fiennes was among those who came to Hotwells and went hunting for the stones.

For a time, Bristol had its own culture of taking the waters: warm springs below the cliffs, walks through the gorge, and tiny diamonds carried home.

The spa eventually disappeared, but the spring left its name behind. Hotwells still sits beneath the Avon Gorge, a reminder that Bristol once had a bathing culture of its own. In Japan, hot-spring bathing developed along a very different path. Onsen remain part of a living bathing culture, with thousands of hot springs found across the country.

A different bathing tradition is coming to Britain.

Follow Yū Bathhouse as we bring the rituals, design and culture of Japanese communal bathing to the UK.