About
More Than Five Decades of Bathroom Experience
Some businesses begin with a marketing plan. Tony's began on a plumbing counter in 1971.
At 15 years old, Tony Quinn joined a builders merchant and started learning about plumbing products. Around eighteen months later he moved into the bathroom showroom — and bathrooms have formed a significant part of his working life ever since.
The Story
From Plumbing Counter to Bathroom Designer
Tony started work in 1971, on the plumbing counter of a builders merchant. Around eighteen months later he moved into the bathroom showroom, where he began to build the product knowledge and design eye that would shape the rest of his career.
By 1974 he was showroom manager, and started receiving recognition for his bathroom designs and performance. Ten years after starting out, in 1984, Tony opened his first bathroom showroom.
Today he runs Barton Design Centre in Barton on Sea — bringing more than five decades of bathroom-industry experience to every customer who walks through the door.
Joins a builders merchant plumbing counter, aged 15.
Moves into the bathroom showroom.
Becomes showroom manager; recognised for bathroom design and performance.
Opens his first bathroom showroom.
Runs Barton Design Centre in Barton on Sea.
Barton on Sea
A Local Showroom, Not a Chain
Barton Design Centre operates from a single showroom on Marine Drive in Barton on Sea. There's no call centre, no regional management structure and no sales targets from head office — just Tony and a genuinely independent business built on repeat customers and word of mouth.
That independence is part of what allows products to be sold at trade prices in the first place — decisions get made in the showroom, not several layers removed from it.
Philosophy
No Problems, Only Solutions
It's the phrase Tony has worked by for decades, and it says as much about the approach as the business itself. Awkward layouts, tight spaces, tricky plumbing runs or changing accessibility needs aren't reasons to compromise — they're just problems that haven't been solved yet.
Design Philosophy
A Bathroom Has to Work
Whether it's a young family fitting their first proper bathroom, a household planning a complete renovation, or someone adapting a bathroom around changing needs later in life, the starting point is always the same: understand how the room actually gets used before making a single product decision.
That's true whether you're twenty-five or eighty-five — a bathroom that looks good but doesn't work for the people using it isn't a good bathroom.
Talk to Tony
Come in and meet him, or book a free consultation and start the conversation about your bathroom.