A bum deal on a bog-standard property? The former public conveniences being sold off for a song

A budget of £150,000 doesn’t get you far in the property world of London. We did find this £110,000 houseboat in Chelsea, for example, but you’d likely have to pay in cash, as well as finding nearly £1,000 a month in mooring charges. There’s also a garage in Clapham on the market at £150,000, and it has a very nice blue door… but it’s still just a garage.

So to come across a well-located property of over 1,000 sq ft, right near the River Thames, with freehold included, up for auction with a guide price of £110,000 feels like something of a miracle. The catch? It’s a former public convenience on the Isle of Dogs, and the entire place needs to be gutted.

If you’re looking for something a little more elegant, then down in leafy West Norwood has another example, also up for auction via Savills. It’s smaller — at just 657 sq ft — but is a classic, Victorian underground-loo, with the soft, natural lighting afforded by the glass bricks built into the pavement above.

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So, would you have to be a loo-ny to consider buying such a place? Well, it’d take someone with a strong stomach (and perhaps a weak sense of smell) to try and convert a convenience in to a home, but several such properties across the capital have been turned into cafés and bars before now, and — subject to planning permission — there are all sorts of things that could be done.

Places such as the WC Bars (the letters officially stand for ‘wine and charcuterie’, even though they obviously don’t) have been opened in Bloomsbury and Clapham in recent years, while the Attendant café chain has a branch in a subterranean facility in Fitzrovia.

Everyone loves a speakeasy with an unusual entrance, and stepping down beneath pavement level to find a cosy eatery tucked away is the sort of quirky, fun experience that you’d imagine goes down a storm with young professionals about town.

If turning one of these places into a place to eat and drink doesn’t appeal, you could always make it a novelty boutique hotel, like The Netty in the centre of Oxford. They've done such a magnificent job that they've been featured across the world — not least in the New York Times Style Magazine.

Of course, these toilets could (subject to permission) even be made into permanent homes, either to live in yourself, or to rent out — and the latter option will even give you the chance to use the phrase ‘toilet to let’ in the advert.

If you’re keen to roll forward with your plan, you’ll have to be quick: the Manchester Road public toilets in E14 and the Robson Road conveniences in West Norwood are both part of the Savills property auction being held next week on 21 and 22 October. As ever with buying a property at auction, you’ll need to make sure you know exactly what you’re doing — financially and legally — before jumping in. Good luck.

See more details about Manchester Road and Robson Road conveniences, both for auction via Savills.