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in comparatively few years a well appointed and carefully attended urinal
will be regarded as far less objection able than a continuance of street
nuisances. The Vestry believe that that they have shown, in the case
of the underground Conveniences at Piccadilly Circus, that it is possible
to make provision of the kind without offence to the eye or any other
sense.
The construction of the Conveniences at the Circus has been under
consideration for some years. Before the new street, now known as
Shaftesbury Avenue, was completed, the Vestry suggested to the Metropolitan
Board of Works that advantage should be taken of the improvement
to provide some such accommodation. On the 18th July, 1885, a
deputation of the Vestry waited upon the Board with a memorial, praying
that the space which is now enclosed with baulks of timber might be
formed into an ornamental space, with perhaps a fountain or statue in
the centre, and an underground urinal, with proper approaches, constructed
under the same. No definite reply being received to this
memorial, the Vestry again waited upon the Board in the following year,
and requested to be allowed to utilize the space themselves in the manner
suggested, if the Board were unable or unwilling to do so. It was not
until nearly two years later (January, 1888), that the Vestry received an
intimation of the views entertained by the Board on these two suggestions.
They then learned that the Board had decided that, in view of all
the circumstances, it was not expedient to comply with the request of
the Vestry.
The site first suggested was, as it still is, enclosed, but a triangular
space to the east of the entrance to Shaftesbury Avenue had been paved
and added to the street. It had thus, under the provisions of the Special
Act of Parliament authorizing the improvement, passed to the Vestry, and
the latter at once intimated to the Metropolitan Board of Works their
intention of exercising the powers conferred on them by the Metropolis
Local Management Act, 1855, and of providing public conveniences on,
or rather under, that site. The Board, in reply, intimated that they
would oppose the carrying out of this intention, and brought pressure to
bear upon the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, to whom the freehold
of the ground would revert if the surface ceased to form part of the
street, to prevent the construction of the conveniences.
The Vestry freely recognized the propriety of deferring to the views of
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and therefore approached Colonel
Ringscote with plans of the proposed Works, to which they sought the
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