The water contains nothing but a little salt, and calcarious earth, mixed in such inconsiderable opinion, as can have very little, if any, effect on the animal economy.

Squire Bramble in Tobias Smollett's Humphry Clinker, 177.

The warm-water springs at Hotwells had led to it becoming a fashionable resort from 1695 onwards after the Society of Merchant Venturers let the land for development.

The popularity of natural hot springs altered the fortunes of a number of British towns and cities, including Bath Spa, Leamington Spa, and Bristol. While people initially came for the curative powers of the water, it was the associated amusements and diversions that soon made spa towns fashionable. People flocked there for the social life, rather than the waters.

Springs surfacing below St Vincent's Rock had been recorded since medieval times and their reputed powers to cure disease had drawn people to the area since the 1600s. The whole area was transformed by the hotels, lodging houses, pleasure gardens, ballrooms and shops, which sprang up to serve visitors. Hotwells became a fashionable gathering place for the rich and famous.

Unfortunately interest in the spa had declined by the 1790s owing to higher prices and general doubt about the water's healing property:

It was demolished in 1867.