Among the various peculiar items for sale on Facebook Marketplace, a £70,000 "townhouse" stands out – especially because the property is actually an old public toilet. This abandoned toilet in Sheffield, for those with creativity and vision, may hold a bright future, just like other similar places that have been converted into living spaces, galleries, and breweries.
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04-03, 2025Laura Jane Clark, a London architect, transformed a derelict underground toilet in Crystal Palace, London, that was initially "revolting" into a home. "My initial idea was to turn it into an art gallery or a bar, but then I realized that actually, we could live here," she said. She added, "After convincing the council to sell them to me as commercial units, I had to go back and apply to live there – I think they just wanted to get rid of me, so they agreed."
Ms. Clark, now residing in Glasgow, spent nearly seven years repeatedly communicating with the council, determined to prevent them from filling the toilets with concrete. "Luckily, people saw my vision, saw the potential," she said. "It was quite a mammoth task. I was there every dusk, working like a navvy, wheeling barrowloads of concrete onto the pavement. People were very curious because they had been closed for so many years."
Although public toilets first appeared in Britain in the 19th century, two centuries later, the accessibility of these facilities has declined, affecting people's willingness to visit certain towns. Cash-strapped councils have been selling off or transferring their management to save money, with some taking steps to ensure that future owners still provide public access to these facilities.
Janet Martin, like Ms. Clark, renovated a toilet that had been abandoned for many years and was no longer open to the public. She said, "It was about to be bulldozed, and nobody thought it was a building of any architectural merit. I do think we need public toilets." The 70-year-old former nurse opened the Phyllis Maud Performance Space five years ago, a 35-seat performance venue, in memory of her late aunt. Ms. Martin also owns Barnabas Arts House in Newport, Wales, and said, "She didn’t want a graveyard, but I thought she couldn’t just go and leave nothing behind, so I decided to name it after her. Now her name is on the lips of so many people around the world. I don't know what she would have thought."
Ms. Martin bought the building for £15,000 and spent £55,000 on renovations because she was attracted to its "unusually pretty" appearance. She said, "Edwardian toilets were designed so beautifully, and I always thought, what a lovely little building. You don’t feel like you’re in a toilet; you feel like you’re in a theatre." The building's listed status meant that the white tiles had to be retained, which she said she would have done even without the regulation.
While the conversion of public toilets is becoming increasingly popular and a unique attraction for bars, restaurants, and performance venues, it is not a new phenomenon. More than a decade ago, a sandwich bar in central London was one of the first to join this trend. Subsequently, music venues, theaters, wine bars, and offices followed suit.
Amjid Hafiz owns a café called Latte Caffe on Abbeydale Road in Sheffield, which has been a newsagent and sweet shop since it was originally built as a toilet. He said, "When it was a shop, I used to come here and think, 'What could I do with it? What could I do here?'" He said the building's history is a "positive thing" and that even though the space is small, it has the potential to provide employment and become profitable.
As for the £70,000 "townhouse" for sale on Archer Road, less than a mile from Latte Caffe, its future remains to be seen. Ms. Clark, star of the BBC2 program "Your Home Made Perfect," said, "Renovation needs to be done carefully. The worst-case scenario is a developer saying 'Let's turn it into a townhouse' and then making a mess of it, but they can work really well, or as cafes, bars, and hairdressers. Any conversion is a good conversion."
