Rothesay's Victorian Toilets
The Pier
Rothesay
Isle of Bute

Tel - : 01700 505146
Administrative Office
Tel / Fax: 01700 504754
World Class Toilets

Only a few steps from the embarkation gangway on Rothesay Pier, Isle of Bute, lies the most impressive surviving late Victorian public convenience in Scotland, if not Britain.

Commissioned by Rothesay Harbour Trust in 1899 during Rothesay's hey-day as a holiday resort, the gents lavatory, a most unusual survivor of the Victorian era, was always intended to impress.

The interior is magnificient with walls entirely clad in decorative ceramic tiles, ornately patterned in rows. The floors are designed with ceramic mosaic, with the crest of the Royal Burgh of Rothesay at the entance.
 

Open 7 days a week, the Victorian Toilets are fully functional Public Lavatories. As part of the £300,000 restoration project in the 1990's there are modern ladies toilets with mother and child facilities, disabled toilets with father and child facilities and ladies & gents showers.

 

The complex is run on behalf of Argyll & Bute Council by Bute Victoriana Ltd., a Community Business with charitable status formed under the auspices of Bute Enterprises Ltd. Nowadays they are not only an important public facility but are a major element among the facilities at the harbour attracting yachts people and other leisure sailors to Rothesay.		 Fourteen urinals stand like sentinels along two walls, another six surround a central stand - each a white enamel alcove topped with the legend "Twyfords Ltd. Cliffe Vale Potteries, Hanley" and crowned with imitation dark green St Anne marble.
Three glass sided cisterns feed water to the the urinals through shining copper pipes. Nine WC cubicles with plain panelled doors complete layout. Apart from the cisterns in the cubicles all the original fitments remain as supplied in 1899 by Twyfords Ltd. Glasgow for £530.
  
 
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