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96
The Conveniences at Piccadilly Circus, which are to be opened to
the public on the 7th August, have been constructed by the Vestry of the
Parish of St. James, Westminster, at a cost of about £3,500.
The Vestry have for many years past felt the necessity of increasing
the number of public urinals in the Parish, and as the district is yearly
becoming less residential in character, accommodation of the kind is
more and more needed for the growing number of people brought into
the neighbourhood for business purposes. It is probably generally
agreed that the number of public urinals in most parts of the Metropolis
is totally inadequate to meet the requirements of the present population,
and there is also a general consensus of opinion that, whatever may be
an appropriate site for such a structure, any position which may be
selected is the most objectionable site that could be chosen—from the
point of view of residents in the immediate vicinity. Within the last
10 or 12 years many projects for increasing necessary accommodation
have been formed, and the majority of them have been abandoned in
deference to the strongly expressed dissent of neighbours. In one case,
indeed, as recently as 1879, the Vestry disregarded the opposition of the
residents and erected a public urinal in Old Burlington Mews, deeming
the objections that were taken to the proposal to be without good foundation.
An undoubted nuisance existed on the very spot selected for the
urinal, and it appeared to the Vestry desirable, alike in the interests of
decency and health, to provide a suitable structure. The inhabitants
however appealed to the Courts of Law, and in the result succeeded in
obtaining an injunction restraining the Vestry from continuing the urinal,
and throwing the costs of the proceedings (amounting to several hundreds
of pounds) upon the Vestry. At various times proposals have been made
to construct underground urinals in some of the larger spaces in the
Parish, such as Great Marlborough Street by the Police Court, and the
Circuses, but on each occasion strenuous opposition was threatened, and
the schemes were, with some reluctance, abandoned.
It is obvious that public urinals are very largely used by strangers to
the neighbourhood, and, that to be of the maximum benefit, they should
therefore not be placed in obscure corners, but in such situations as not
to require a prolonged search. At the same time, the natural prejudice
against the construction of urinals in prominent positions, on the part of
ratepayers in the vicinity, who have to defray the cost of constructing
and maintaining the Conveniences, must be respected, and thus the
action of the Vestry is considerably fettered. Signs are not wanting,
however, that this prejudice is becoming weaker, and it is possible that