Public and Convenient!

Many people will welcome these new public lavatories at Major's Comer. They replace the old ones there and have the added important advantage of being staffed by an attendant.

Some Society members will recall that Ipswich also had quite spacious and staffed public lavatories, underground, at Tower Ramparts and the Old Cattle Market. There were others (I'm not sure whether staffed) at the back of the Corn Exchange. Those three sites covered the very centre of town more fully than is the case now. They presumably went because they needed repair, had no disabled access and were costly to staff.

But those loos were a loss! A loss of a very British facility. I well remember many years ago on an early visit to France (in Valenciennes, I think it was) being disconcerted that there were no public lavatories and that I was expected to visit a cafe and buy a drink, which I didn't really want, in order to make myself comfortable. Indignantly acting on good old British principles, I refused - only to spend the next couple of hours very uncomfortably! I'm certainly not a chauvinist, but it's good that we are going back to the creation of this type of British institution. I hope there'll be more to follow in the town centre and especially on the Waterfront.

NEIL SALMON