Sake Dean Mahomed

Sake Dean mahomed - 1759-1851

Born on the banks of the Ganges and buried beneath Sussex yews, Sake Deen Mahomed led an extraordinary life that bridged empires, cultures and centuries. Surgeon’s apprentice, travel writer, restaurateur and spa pioneer, he gifted Britain both its first commercial curry and the very word “shampoo.” His story shows how one resourceful migrant reshaped Georgian and Regency Britain long before Windrush or the Raj.

A BOY FROM PATNA HEADS WEST (1759 – 1784)

Mahomed was born in May 1759 in Patna, a Mughal garrison town where his father served in the East India Company’s Bengal Army. Orphaned young, he attached himself to Captain Godfrey Evan Baker, an Anglo-Irish officer. As the regiment marched along the Ganges he picked up camp surgery, Persian and Urdu skills that would later prove invaluable in Europe. When Baker resigned in 1782, Mahomed refused to stay behind. They finally sailed in early 1784, trading the monsoon-scented Bay of Bengal for the rain-lashed quays of Cork that autumn.

CORK: LOVE, LETTERS & A LEAP OF FAITH (1784 – 1806)

Quickly mastering English at a local academy, Mahomed fell for Jane Daly, the daughter of a Protestant wine merchant. The couple married by special licence in 1786 after Mahomed took Anglican communion to satisfy the bishop’s concerns. By 1794 his vivid memories of India had become The Travels of Dean Mahomet, the first English-language book written by an Indian author, whisking Cork subscribers past elephant caravans and Mughal courts.

PORTMAN SQUARE & THE FIRST BRITISH CURRY (1807 – 1812)

Ambition next drew the family to London. Mahomed demonstrated invigorating champi massage at Sir Basil Cochrane’s fashionable vapour baths, introducing polite society to the word “shampoo,” borrowed from the Hindi chāmpo“to knead.”

In 1810 he opened the Hindoostane Coffee House at 34 George Street, serving spiced pilau, pickles and post-prandial hookahs beneath bamboo awnings. Londoners were intrigued but not yet ready to dine out; when the restaurant closed in 1812 Mahomed was declared bankrupt. Britain, however, had tasted its first commercial curry.

DOWN TO THE SEA In BRIGHTON ARRIVAL (1814 – 1821)

Failure in London bred reinvention on Sussex’s sunny coast. In spring 1814, as the Prince Regent remodelled his Marine Pavilion, Mahomed leased a plot in Pool Valley and unveiled Mahomed’s Indian Medicated Vapour Baths.

Seawater pumped from the beach was heated by a basement engine, scented with mustard, sandal and rose oils, then channelled into cedar cabinets; afterwards Mahomed or Jane kneaded aching joints with vigorous “shampooing.” Crutches surrendered by grateful gout victims soon decorated the entrance, and Brighton began hailing its new healer as “Dr Brighton.” Guidebooks listed the baths alongside the Chain Pier and Theatre Royal, and even the poor queued on wet Wednesdays for free treatment.

ROYAL WARRANTS & A SEASIDE CRAZE (1822 – 1838)

George IV summoned Mahomed to the Royal Pavilion in 1822, appointed him “Shampooing Surgeon to His Majesty”and ordered a private vapour bath beside his gilded bedroom. European aristocrats followed, among them Princess Poniatowsky of Poland, who later presented a silver cup now displayed at Brighton Museum. Rival bathkeepers hurried to copy the Indian method; by the mid-1830s Brighton boasted half-a-dozen medicated bath-houses, none matching the spectacle of Mahomed’s illuminated façade on royal birthday nights.

COMPETITION, CREDIT … & BRILL’S BATHS (1839 – 1846)

Constant rebuilding and Mahomed’s generous habit of treating the poor on credit strained finances. In the late 1830s he sold the flagship premises to hotelkeeper Charles Brill; the sign now read Brill’s Baths, yet locals still called the place “Mahomed’s.” When the imposing Queen’s Hotel rose next door in 1846 it absorbed much of the old bath-house; a blue plaque on the hotel frontage marks the spot today.

A GRAND PARADE FAREWELL (1846 – 1851)

Mahomed spent quieter final years at 32 Grand Parade, handing the heavy work to younger “shampooers” but remaining a respected town figure. He died peacefully on 24 February 1851, aged 91, and lies in St Nicholas’ churchyard under a simple stone: “SAKE DEEN MAHOMED, SHAMPOOING SURGEON.”

BRIGHTON TODAY: FOLLOWING MAHOMED’S FOOTSTEPS

Queen’s Hotel, Kings Road – Blue plaque and the ground his baths once occupied.
Royal Pavilion – Interpretive panel beside the King’s private vapour bath.
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery – 1810 portrait and Princess Poniatowsky’s silver cup.
St Nicholas’ Churchyard – Mahomed’s head-stone beneath shaded yews.
Brighton & Hove Buses – Route 855 bears his name, rolling daily along the coast road.

WHY HIS BRIGHTON CHAPTER MATTERS

Mahomed did more than introduce an “exotic” curiosity. His Pool Valley baths extended Brighton’s holiday season, popularised spa culture long before Turkish baths were fashionable, and gave the English language shampoo, a word millions still use every day. Walk past the Queen’s Hotel or rinse your hair tonight and you remain, in a small way, in the deft hands of “Dr Brighton.”