The first photograph below is of a building that used to be a public toilet in Lower Sydenham. If it appears dark and lopsided, that is because it was taken in the small hours while I stood in the middle of the road.
The second photograph is of what used to be a public toilet in Penge. As you can see, it has been decorated in a somewhat eccentric or even psychedelic fashion and is clearly not for sale. It may be that it is currently being used as a store or something.
Public buildings aside, public toilets are a rarity nowadays. I remember when I was younger they were thicker on the ground, or even underground, and although they tended to be austere and not the sort of place any self-respecting heterosexual would hang around, they were a public service. Some even had attendants.
Something else that has all but disappeared is the public telephone, but as most of us are now walking around with phones in our pockets, that isn’t too much of an inconvenience.
I don’t know if that toilet in Sydenham will be sold, even though it is apparently under offer, but frankly I would like to see more of them, and a few other things that have vanished from our streets, from our society, since I was young.
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