Colman's Seafood Temple

Colman's temple as it is today with original public toilet building on the right. Jeremy Bolwell

At the southern end of the main beach area of South Shields is a seafood restaurant housed in a striking Neoclassical building, which cleverly hides its past as a public lavatory. The original Doric-columned structure was built in 1931 to provide shelter from the changeable Tyneside weather, as well as restrooms in the basement.

Colloquially, the building became known as Gandhi’s Temple, even though Mahatma Gandhi never set foot on the premises. In all likelihood, locals at the time thought the columns gave it the appearance of a religious building. It was also the case that Gandhi visited the U.K. around the time it opened—some joker may have coined it and the name stuck.

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. The old shelter now houses an oyster and cocktail bar. The architects for the transformation were Fizarchitects and construction was carried out by Brims. Above all, the family went to great lengths to preserve the original part of this architectural curiosity.

Know Before You Go

There's a wide range of sustainable seafood on the menu here, but the stars are undeniably the locally-caught oysters and the fish and chips. The latter is made with either prime cod or line-caught haddock and comes accompanied by classics like chip shop curry sauce, mushy peas, and hand-cut thick or thin chips.

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