‘Fountain’, from Victorian necessity to modern inconvenience: Contesting the death of public toilets

Abstract

Drawing on the politicised history of Public Conveniences in England since the 19th century, this paper traces the socio-political motives for their provision and for their gradual withdrawal in recent decades. It discusses the effects these developments have had on public mobility, and the socio-political complexity these infrastructures pose to city-making agendas. In particular, the essay highlights the notions of stigma associated with these spaces in relation to gender, body-politics and control, which led to a lack of political interest in their provision and a pattern of closures that began in the Thatcher era and has continued through later times of economic austerity. To unfold these arguments, the essay examines a series of initiatives put forward to reclaim for public use a derelict toilet in the centre of London: from the concept of an interactive site-specific intervention to raise awareness of its closure, to a campaign for its listing as an Asset of Community Value, to contest its privatisation. This case study is used to address the spatial stigma that public toilets carry as a contested locus of public sanitation and, furthermore, to highlight important questions surrounding their provision in the context of contemporary citizen-driven urban agendas. To articulate this argument, the case study exemplifies how critical spatial practices can operate as a form of pedagogical urban praxis for awareness-raising and citizen engagement, advancing a Lefebvrian ‘right to the city’ against hegemonic neoliberal agendas.