Western civilisation, as Mahatma Gandhi once said, sounds like a good idea. I was reminded of this on hearing the news that Soho is to install an ?art-loo?. A £52,000 pod with a public lavatory inside will also showcase art by local residents. The structure will be made out of chestnut, oak and other softwoods, and has been designed ?to fit in with local surroundings, such as a Grade II-listed church and Wardour Street?s Wall of Light?.
The loo function, one suspects, fits in with the drunks seeking to relieve themselves wherever they can. This sight is horribly common now, and if you want to see it, you don?t even have to wait until pub closing time.
I know I?m going to sound like a grumpy old mouse, but I am shocked at the number of times I have gone home on a Friday night at about 8pm, and been confronted by aggressive drunks on the Underground, swaying men or women desperately eating hamburgers to soak up the revelries of earlier, or people simply snoring on their way home. Is it civil to encourage this behaviour with easily accessible loos? Or do we accept that we need to accommodate behavioural changes as ?civilisation? progresses?
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'I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed': Inside Jane Austen's Winchester home, the house where she penned her final words and drew her final breathJane Austen spent the last days of her life in rented lodgings in Winchester, Hampshire. Adam Rattray describes the remarkable recent discoveries made about the house in which she died.
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An utterly charming island home in Scotland with gardens so beautiful they made the cover of Country LifeAn Cala on the Isle of Seil has a fascinating history that is only enhanced by its amazing setting.
