Edinburgh yoga studio relocation plan sparks community backlash at Portobello Swim Centre

Edinburgh Leisure’s plan to relocate a yoga studio inside Portobello Swim Centre has triggered a sharp backlash from regular users who say the move would disrupt classes and strip away the quiet atmosphere that makes the room work. A petition has already been started, and campaigners say the affected sessions include Yoga, Dance, Body Balance and Pilates.

The objection is not just about where a mat lands. People using the centre say the current studio’s windows, sea views and calm setting are part of the class experience, especially in a building that serves as one of Portobello’s main public wellbeing spaces. In the petition, supporters said the new location would be “completely unsuitable,” turning a well-used room into a compromise at the expense of daily access for members.

The row sits inside a broader refurbishment and efficiency drive at the Category A listed building, which Historic Environment Scotland dates to 1898 and credits to Robert Morham. The January 5 procurement notice put the estimated value of the works at £7.5 million and set out a plan that included moving the gym to the first floor, creating a new centrally located studio, reinstating the original changing area west of the entrance, adding poolside cubicles and reconfiguring circulation routes. Edinburgh Leisure said in an April 2026 FOI and EIR response that it had led early feasibility and design development work only up to March 2025, after which the City of Edinburgh Council became project lead and client.

That history matters because Portobello Swim Centre is not an ordinary leisure unit. Historic Environment Scotland describes it as a rare large-scale municipal bath and one of Scotland’s finest surviving Victorian leisure buildings. Edinburgh Leisure says the venue has provided recreation, health and fitness for more than 120 years, while its Turkish baths page describes the site’s authentic Victorian-designed Turkish baths as the last of their kind in Edinburgh. Public contracts material says it remains Edinburgh’s only publicly available Victorian Turkish bath and one of only three still operating in Scotland.

For users, the dispute has become a test of how much weight a public leisure provider gives to the feel of a room as well as the square footage of a floor plan. Residents say they were not kept fully informed, and campaigners believe emails seen by supporters suggest the decision may already have been effectively settled before consultation could properly shape it. That has deepened the frustration around a move that many now see as a question of trust, access and what kind of space yoga is allowed to occupy inside a civic building.