At the southern end of the main beach area of South Shields (Tyne and Wear, UK) is a modern looking building which hides , really well, its history as a public toilet.
The structure from which this seafood restaurant has been developed was built to provide both a shelter from the changeable Tyneside weather and public rest rooms in the basement. It was built for the convenience of people using the sands (pun certainly intended) and was known locally as Gandhi’s Temple, probably because of its columns giving the appearance of a religious building and may be associated with the fact that it looked rather exotic to the locals in 1931. It was also the case that Gandhi was on a visit to the UK when it was opened and it may be that when some joker termed the name it stuck. Until its redevelopment almost no change had occurred to the building throughout its life except for the removal of seating and some partitions from the upper floor. The resulting appearance sometimes led to the incorrect assumption that it was a bandstand
In 2017, after a major effort by the family which owns Colman Fish and Chips, a well known institution in South Shields, to purchase and reform the structure, it was opened as a seafood restaurant with the old shelter now housing an oyster and cocktail bar. The architects for the transformation were Fizarchitects and construction was carried out by Brims. Both are based in Sunderland.
A brilliant re-use of a redundant building.
