Victorian Turkish Baths Picture of the Month for December 2010
Drumsheugh Swimming Club, Edinburgh:
the Moorish decorative window grille with text
This magnificent grille guards the windows of a private members' swimming club in Edinburgh. Across the top appears the text Drumsheugh Swimming and Turkish Baths Company Ld.
There is currently an unsolved mystery about this. When the company was formed in 1882—two years before the club opened—its name was the Drumsheugh Baths Company Limited.
In 1892, there was a disastrous fire which totally destroyed the building. Shortly after the rebuilding was completed, the company went into liquidation and the building and its fittings and fixtures were purchased from the liquidator by a new company called the Drumsheugh Baths Club Limited, and this is the company which runs the club today.
Yet at no time, so far as we know, was the company which owned the building called by the name on the grille. Be that as it may it does serves well as a reminder that before the 1970s, the present gymnasium was a fine Turkish bath.
Paul McClure for permission to use his great photograph of the grille
This page enlarges an image or adds to the information found below:
Drumsheugh Baths Club, Edinburgh
Victorian Turkish Baths: their origin, development, and gradual decline
Comments and queries are most welcome and can be sent to:
malcolm@victorianturkishbath.org
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© Malcolm Shifrin, 1991-2023