Public Conveniences, Nelson Street

Public Conveniences, Nelson Street

Built in 1926, these single-storey public conveniences are constructed of stretcher-bond red brickwork raised on an ovolo profile and feature a reconstituted stone plinth, plain frieze, moulded cornice, and plain parapet. The building has a rectangular plan with slightly projecting rounded corners, the end panels to the east and west elevations displaying mutules and blind oculi with garlands. The north and south side elevations each contain a row of eight timber-framed oculi windows set within reconstituted stone panels with rectangular recessed spacing panels.

The gentlemen's toilet entrance is at the eastern end of the south elevation, featuring rounded brick reveals with stops and a four-panel timber door beneath an Art Nouveau-style garlanded cartouche reading GENTLEMEN. The ladies' toilet entrance is at the west end of the north elevation, identical except for the cartouche reading LADIES and fitted with two-panel double doors with brass knuckle hinges. A further four-panel timber door set in plain reveals is located centrally beneath the oculi windows of the south elevation, providing access to shared disabled toilet facilities. The secondary depressed gable roof is hidden by the low parapet wall and has timber-framed clerestory dead-light windows and gable ends glazed in glass, with roof slopes glazed in clear Corotherm multi-wall polycarbonate panels. The roof structure is carried on reinforced concrete beams.

The interior is divided by a central wall separating the gentlemen's and ladies' facilities. The gentlemen's toilet is accessed through a narrow curving corridor with a two-light attendant's sash window. The corridor turns 90 degrees west and enters the toilet from the east, flanked to the north by a wash room entered by a four-panel timber door and lit by a nine-pane frosted glass window in a timber surround with cornice. To the south is the attendant's room, similarly windowed and entered by a four-panel door with brass fittings and frosted upper panels. Three water-closet cubicles are situated against the south wall, screened by a timber wall with moulded cornice running its full length. Each cubicle is fitted with a white glazed stoneware 'Kensington' Combination wash-down pedestal with modern seat and three-gallon cistern mounted on stoneware brackets, entered through plain four-panelled timber doors with toilet lock indicators. A seven-person white glazed stoneware 'Severn' urinal range is built against the north wall, served by two cisterns with small Art Nouveau-style tulip motifs and supported by stoneware brackets fitted with polished copper and brass pipework. A waist-height timber cupboard with two-panelled door and brass fittings stands in the northwest corner on an angled glazed tile plinth, adjacent to a secondary Edward Johns and Co Limited scalloped white and cobalt blue stoneware hand sink attached to the dividing wall.

The ladies' toilet is accessed via a small entry corridor with pale cream tiled walls and blue tiled bands forming skirting and cornice. An illuminated four-pane double side-hinged attendant's window faces the south wall, with an illuminated ladies sign above. Two-panel double doors with frosted upper glazed panels and brass finger plates lead into the toilet room. The south wall is lined by five identical timber-screened water closet cubicles, with a further two cubicles built against the northeast corner of the north wall. A suite of three interlocking white enamelled hand basins is supported on a chamfered and stopped timber frame attached to the north wall between the cubicles and a timber cupboard. The attendant's room is entered by a four-panel door in the west wall adjacent to the entrance corridor doors.

A pair of small walled cubicles used as disabled toilets project into both the ladies' and gentlemen's toilets from the southern end of the central dividing wall, accessed only from the external central door in the south wall. These cubicles are lit by direct light from a clerestory window and borrowed light from deadlights in the upper section of the cubicle walls.

The walls throughout are clad in very pale cream tiles with black and white terrazzo floors edged in green with a black boundary band. Narrow sections of ceiling are formed against the north and south walls by the under-surface of the reinforced concrete roof slab surrounding an open light well beneath the glazed roof, supported by concrete wall plates and an exposed reinforced concrete king post truss over the centre of each room.