The Drumsheugh Baths Club is a private swimming club in the
West End of Edinburgh,
Scotland founded in 1882 and opened in 1884.
History
Ahead of its opening in 1884 architect Sir
John James Burnett was commissioned to design a building on a steeply sloping north facing site in Belford Road, formerly old Queensferry Road. The baths were designed in a
Moorish
The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a distinct or se ...
style designed to look like a
Hammam, reported as possibly being influenced by Turkish baths that Burnet had seen during his education in Paris, France. This style was popular in Europe in the
Victorian era.
The baths are reported as having a "deeply shadowed entrance" under a "low-pitch stone bracketed roof" with "slender Moorish-style columns and arches visible throughout". The 70 ft main pool area is under an "exposed timber roof", with a "mezzanine gallery on the eastern side".
When it first opened in the 1880s, the company's shareholders are reported as including "office clerks, city merchants, spinsters, advocates, doctors, stockbrokers, and soldiers".
In 1892 the building suffered a fire.
When the original company managing the pool went into liquidation the new 'Drumsheugh Baths Club Limited' purchased the pool's assets in 1902 and continue to run the pool to this day.
Today
A number of the baths' original features have been retained, including rings and trapezes above the main pool. The building also has a gymnasium, a sauna, a treatment room, a massage room and a lounge area. The club has around 500 members, and reciprocal memberships with clubs elsewhere in the UK.
The club offers services such as towel and swimwear washing, where towels and swimwear are cleaned and returned to members lockers at the end of each visit.
See also
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Warrender Baths
Warrender Swim Centre – traditionally known as Warrender Baths – is a swimming pool and fitness complex that opened in 1887 in Marchmont, Edinburgh.
It consists of a pool in length, a sauna, and an assortment of fitness equipment. ...
*
Portobello Swim Centre
*
Western Baths
The Western Baths Club is a Victorian era private swimming and leisure club founded in 1876. The club remains at its original site at 12 Cranworth Street, Hillhead, Glasgow. The 19th-century baths, designed by Glasgow architects Clarke & Bell,
*
Arlington Baths Club
References
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Organizations established in 1882
Sports venues in Edinburgh
Swimming venues in Scotland
1882 establishments in Scotland
Clubs and societies in Edinburgh
Victorian Turkish baths