Portobello Baths, 57 Promenade, Portobello, Edinburgh

Portobello Baths, designed by Robert Morham, City Architect, assisted by Depute Mr Williamson, was completed in 1898. The building has undergone later alterations detailed in the notes. It is a two-storey structure with an attic and raised basement, designed in the Scottish Renaissance-Queen Anne style as a swimming bath facility with two pools positioned behind the front block.

The exterior is constructed of red bull-faced squared and snecked sandstone with polished red sandstone dressings and chamfered arrises. The principal elevation features a tall base course incorporating basement windows, a wooden balcony at first floor flanking the entrance gable, a cast-iron bowed window guard at the central bay, and a coped parapet to a tower at the extreme right.

The north (entrance) elevation is nearly symmetrical, comprising twelve bays arranged in groups of 4-3-5. A raised and advanced central entrance gable is reached by eight steps leading to the ground floor. At ground level, a timber mullioned semicircular window sits to the centre, with recessed upper storeys above. A cast-iron bowed balcony at first floor projects in front of a transomed and mullioned tripartite window, above which sits a carved stone armorial plaque. An attic window breaks the eaves in a segmental pediment. The centre is flanked by two-leaf wooden doors with glazed upper sections set within roll-moulded basket-arched doorpieces with steep-angled carved pediments flanked by obelisk finials, marked left for women and right for men. Cross-mullioned four-light windows appear at first floor above each entrance, and bipartite windows at attic level sit within Dutch gableheads. The flanking bays are symmetrical except for a canted tower breaking the eaves with a crenellated parapet to the outer right, a timber balcony at first floor, and a late twentieth-century ramp to the bays to the right of centre.

The west (Bellfield Street) elevation comprises twelve bays grouped 2-2-7-1-1. Buttresses with pyramidal caps (modelled on those at Stirling and Falkland Palaces) divide the central seven bays. Bipartite windows sit between a moulded string course and coped parapet with slit openings to each bay. A two-bay gable to the left of centre features skewputts and is lit at ground floor by a tripartite window to the centre flanked by single windows, with bipartite windows at first floor and a louvered oculus to the gablehead. Two bays of tower to the outer left are set back and angled, with a projection at basement-ground containing a door; windows appear at ground level (three regularly disposed) and first floor (two, widely spaced). A bay to the right of centre is slightly advanced and features a panelled door with a five-paned rectangular fanlight to the left, set within a moulded doorpiece with segmental pediment, a small window to the left of the door, and bipartite windows possibly lighting stairs to two storeys above, with a parapet. Cross-mullioned tripartite windows light a three-storey gabled bay to the outer right.

The building displays a variety of window types, including twelve-pane and eight-pane timber sash and case windows, and six-pane timber hinged windows at ground level on the entrance elevation. The roof is complex, with varying heights: grey slated roof to the north, a different slate type used beneath the line of dormers, and a polygonal roof above the tower with a finial. Glazed ridges light each pool. Red polished ashlar chimney stacks with upper sections of cream polished sandstone crown the entrance elevation; those to the centre feature curvilinear shouldering. Coped wallhead stacks appear on the south elevation. Original cast-iron downpipes and rainwater heads bear trefoil raised decoration and dentilled cornicing. A separate stack to the southeast is constructed of red brick, tapering to a polygonal form, with cream brick to the top and banding in the upper stage.

The interior was originally segregated into men's and women's areas with nearly mirrored facilities including two entrances, two halls, two staircases, and two pools: the female pool measuring 50 feet by 25 feet and the male pool measuring 75 feet by 35 feet. The women's entrance is marked by two-leaf semi-glazed doors within a glazed vestibule screen; a later door serves the men's entrance. A timber central ticket booth and large wood-clad columns support the halls. Paired and mirrored half-turn staircases feature wrought-iron decorative banisters and tiled walls in black, white, cream, blue, and brown. A Legrande and Sutcliffe turnstile has been repositioned to the right of the stairs. The main swimming pool, formerly the male pond, features a tiered gallery on three sides with timber balustrade, cast-iron columns bearing ornamental capitals at ground and first floor, a painted roof truss, and diagonally arranged timber boarding to the gallery soffit and roof. Original tiles line the pool. The small pool, formerly the women's pond, retains non-original tiling and decoration. A non-original changing area and Aerotone unit (shown on plans dating from 1946) occupy the space between the pools.

Turkish baths occupy the rear, comprising a Tepidarium, Sudatorium, Russian bath, Laconicum, and Callidarium. The Tepidarium is lit by an oval skylight. A double-height cold bath plunge pool with timber balustrade overlooks a galleried upper storey, with original Gothic-detailed changing stalls at both levels. A timber banister with obelisk newel posts serves the staircase. A Moorish or Saracenic brick arch spans between the Tepidarium and Sudatorium above the plunge bath, with matching arches on each wall of the Sudatorium incorporating a water fountain to the left of the arch. The Sudatorium features a domed ceiling with a circular rooflight at the apex and four stars with circular openings grouped around it; these openings were originally filled with coloured leaded glazing. Non-original tiling is now in place in the Laconicum and Callidarium.

Boundary walls of bull-faced red sandstone with chamfered ashlar copings run along the north (entrance) elevation, stepping down to the northwest corner. A single Royal Mail letter box with a keystoned curvilinear pediment is incorporated into the wall. Ashlar walls flank the main entrance staircase, featuring moulded coping and terminating in square pillars topped with truncated cast-iron lamp standards.