Drumsheugh Baths Club

The Drumsheugh Baths Club is a private swimming club in Edinburgh’s West End. Founded in 1882 and opened in 1884, it stands on a steeply sloping site in Belford Road. The building was designed by architect Sir John James Burnett in a Moorish style meant to resemble a Hammam. Its entrance is deeply shadowed under a low-pitch stone bracketed roof, supported by slender Moorish-style columns and arches. The main pool area is 70 feet long, covered by an exposed timber roof, with a mezzanine gallery on the eastern side. The club is worth the journey for its historic significance and unique architecture. Shareholders at its opening included office clerks, city merchants, spinsters, advocates, doctors, stockbrokers, and soldiers. In 1892, a fire damaged the building, but it was restored and later purchased by the new Drumsheugh Baths Club Limited in 1902. The club has maintained its original features, such as rings and trapezes above the main pool. Visitors find a gymnasium, sauna, treatment room, massage room, and a lounge area. The club retains many of its original features while offering modern services like towel and swimwear washing. Around 500 members use the facilities, with reciprocal memberships available at other clubs across the UK.