Drumsheugh Baths Edinburgh New Town Pool, Photo, Architect, Date, 5 Belford Road Building History

Drumsheugh Baths Edinburgh Architecture

Moorish swimming pool design by JJ Burnet Architect, Scotland

post updated 3 July 2023

Drumsheugh Baths Club, 5 Belford Road, EH4 3BL

Date built: 1882; refurbished 2005

Design: Sir John James Burnet

Drumsheugh Baths Edinburgh

Oldest private swimming club in Edinburgh – 70ft long pool

Style: Moorish

Drumsheugh Gardens

photo © Adrian Welch

Edinburgh New Town

photo © Adrian Welch

John James Burnet Architect

Glenogle Baths:

photo © Adrian Welch

Address: Drumsheugh Toll, 3 Belford Road, EH4 3BL
Date built: 1881
Design: George Washington Browne
Free Tudor style

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 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 opened in 1882, with a deeply shadowed entrance under a low-pitch stone bracketed roof with slender Moorish-style columns and arches visible throughout. The 70-foot main pool area was under an exposed timber roof, with a mezzanine gallery on the eastern side.

The building suffered a fire in 1892.

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.

A building located close by, just to the north:

Dean Gallery

image © Adrian Welch
Dean Gallery