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Why do Londoners
drink coffee in a WC?
“I
remember seeing a sign saying ‘To
Let’,” says Peter Tomlinson, talking
about the first time he considered
turning a disused public lavatory
into a café. “Although somebody
had scrawled a letter ‘I’ in so it read ‘Toilet’.”
The Attendant retains period features from its
previous incarnation while – and this is important
when you’re drinking flat whites – obliterating
some of the 19th century’s less sanitary
mementos. The office of the toilet attendant,
who once collected pennies from gentleman
customers, has been turned into a tiny kitchen
while a bar stretches across the porcelain urinals.
“It opened in 1890 and was primarily used by
traders working at the market on Great Titchfield
Street,” explains Tomlinson. “We know from a
crest on the urinals that they were produced by
Doulton in Lambeth and they would have been
carried here by horse and cart. The public toilets
were closed in the 1960s and untouched until our
landlord purchased them for £5,000 [NOK46,000]
in 1989. He wanted to start a design studio, but
that never happened and when we opened The
Attendant it was the first time this space has been
accessible to the public for about 50 years.”
A café this unique could survive on novelty
value alone, but Tomlinson has sourced top-
quality food and drink to ensure customers keep
coming back – the coffee is from Caravan in
King’s Cross, the milk arrives from a small farm
in Somerset and the cakes are made by the
acclaimed Bittersweet Bakers. It’s only missing
something you might expect to find at a central
London café – a working toilet.
the-attendant. com
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The Attendant breathes new life into old public toilets
Feeling flush
The toilet bar
The team behind Cellar
Door, a nightclub that
describes itself as “’30s
Berlin-meets-New York
basement dive” claims
the space the club now
cosily inhabits was once
“the most infamous
gents in London”. These
Theatreland urinals
were apparently used
by Oscar Wilde, Joe
Orton and John Gielgud,
though not necessarily at
the same time.
cellardoor.biz
The toilet tour
It may be hard to
understand why Rachel
Erickson swapped the
sun and sea of her native
California for London’s
uniquely damp gloom,
but spend three hours
in her entertaining,
informative company
and it all makes sense.
These toilets carry
history, intrigue – and
much more besides.
lootours.com
The toilet club
Bustling basement
comedy club Ginglik is
located in a converted
Edwardian public
toilet originally built
for crowds at the 1908
London Olympics. It’s so
discreet few locals know
it exists – look carefully
for the entrance by the
edge of Shepherd’s
Bush Green.
ginglik.co.uk
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