Millie George

Site - 10 Infirmary Street (Infirmary Street Baths)

10 Infirmary Street originally formed part of the Royal Infirmary buildings the site then transformed into a bath house that was purpose built. Built in 1885 by Robert Morham, the baths were a response to the cholera outbreak to improve peoples personal hygiene. 10 Infirmary Street was the first public bath house in Edinburgh.

In 2006 Dovecot and Malcom Fraser Architects undertook the restoration of the building to create Dovecot Tapestry Studio and Gallery which opened in 2008. Malcom Fraser transformed the existing deteriorating bath house by repairing the building and adding an extension to form residential apartments and office space in the old laddies baths.

City Pride’s site is located centrally in Edinburgh’s Old Town, many other LGBTQIA spaces and centres are located around the ‘Pink Triangle,’ and more towards Leith. City Pride is a 7 minute walk from Waverley Station and there is a bus stop at the top of the road that has links to multiple suburban areas of Edinburgh.

Using 10 Infirmary Street as site for City Pride acts as a way of the LGBTQIA community being able to reclaim a historically queer space within the city due to it’s popularity with gay men in the 1920s and 1930s.

Design Ethos

The design ethos for City Pride is inspired by the bold nature of the Memphis design movement making use of bright and colourful shapes and patterns. At the core of the design ethos for City Pride is use of the pride rainbow colours without rainbow washing. These colours and patterns are key to the design to reflect the diverse LGBTQIA community.

It is also vital that the character of the bathhouse is maintained in the deisgn approach making use of original materials and features of the bathhouse history. Consideration of longevity and durability throughout material selection is important for City Pride as it is open to the public and needs to stand the test of time.

To avoid rainbow washing I took a physical interpretation of the rainbow in the form of the arch shapes, these shapes can be found all over the bath house and are used across City Pride in the walkway balconies, wallpaper and the tiered seationg detail.

Interior Detailing

Within the main space I have a tiered seating element that allows visitors with a space to sit and take in the environment and what they are learning about there is a screen adjacent to the tiered seating to allow people to watch queer films and cinema. The tiered seating wraps around a staircase taking you from the ground floor up to the first floor. I wanted to create a journey around the staircase that emphasises the curvature of it and that can become inhabited by the visitors of City Pride.