Gentlemens Urinal is a Grade II listed building in the Norwich local planning authority area, England. First listed on 10 March 1998. Public urinal.

Gentlemens Urinal

WRENN ID
lesser-footing-vermeil
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Norwich
Constituency
Norwich South MP: Clive Lewis (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
10 March 1998
Type
Public urinal
Address
Gentlemens Urinal, St Crispins Road
OS grid reference
TG 226 092
Coordinates
52.63527, 1.28846
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Gentlemen's Urinal is a public urinal built in 1919 by A.E. Collins, the City Engineer. It is made of pre-cast reinforced concrete and features a glazed roof. The exterior is a decagonal single-storey structure with a single entrance located on the south-west side. Each of the ten facets consists of three concrete panels set on a concrete plinth, with the panels embossed with a repeating floral pattern and painted. There are two rectangular ventilation slots beneath a moulded cornice and above a moulded string course on each facet. The roof is a two-stage pyramid design supported by ten cast concrete ribs, topped with a ball finial.

Inside, the ball finial transitions into a conical drop pendant. There is a concrete baffle wall in front of the doorway, a concrete floor, and a waste trough. The concrete urinals are arranged in a three-quarter circle and coated with a bituminous compound. This urinal is believed to be the oldest surviving concrete urinal in Britain. In the 1880s, several similar structures were created for the City of Norwich Corporation and placed in prominent city-centre locations, but all have since been demolished.

Local climate

Gentlemens Urinal sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 710 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 88% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 95% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 24 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 75% of listed buildings. Of these, 13 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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