Tenth London public toilet to become bar as councils look to offload costly loos
Tenth London public toilet to become bar as councils look to offload costly loos
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A tenth London toilet is set to become a bar as councils look to offload costly public conveniences. Developers have applied to turn the tiny 43m sqm Barrett Street loos in St Christopher’s Place into a bar. No more than 34 customers would be allowed in the venue at one time if the plans go ahead. The council-owned toilets closed in 2021 after flooding and a Westminster town hall survey found that the cost of security provision and essential maintenance work would outstrip the benefits of keeping them.
The small block could also become a magnet for anti-social behaviour and rough sleepers if it was kept as a public lavatory, local planning officers said. The pub proposals have been recommended for approval at a meeting on Tuesday. Almost 100 of the capital’s public toilets have closed over the last ten years, according to research by Age UK London. A report by the charity earlier this month warned that the issue was becoming a “serious public health concern” and revealed that the last decade has seen around three times as many loos being shut or removed by councils as were opened by them.
Many in London have been demolished to make way for larger developers or become pubs, bars and cafes. Wine bar WC was one of the first to reopen as a drinking spot after revamping a Victorian Water Closet in Clapham in 2014. Four years ago it opened a sister bar in a former Bloomsbury public toilet, where the original 120 year old wooden stalls were made into booths for customers. Chiringuito sits in a converted loo in the Museum Gardens in Cambridge Heath Road.
Attendant Fitzrovia opened in an 1890s lavatory with the original Doulton and Co porcelain urinals converted into counter seating. Bermondsey Arts Club near Borough Station is a former WC on a traffic island. Ladies and Gents Bar was transformed from an underground Kentish Town WC into a subterranean cocktail lounge. Cellar Door, near Covent Garden, was once a gents toilet frequented by Oscar Wilde. But it is now a cocktail bar and venue that hosts burlesque nights and jazz.
