Greenwich Council is set to sell seven public toilets across the borough to raise money to fund local services, according to documents to be placed before a council meeting next week.
The seven conveniences include the long-closed block on Blackheath next to the Long Pond, on Shooters Hill Road, which the council plans to sell if it can get approval from the Crown Estate, which owns the Greenwich borough side of the heath.
Elsewhere in Blackheath, the underground toilets at the Royal Standard – also closed for many years – are also set for sale, subject to resolving an issue where it is not clear if the council actually owns the site or not.
Other public toilets in different parts of London have been put to different uses – in Tottenham, a toilet block was recently reopened as a pub, while at Crystal Palace, a former underground toilet sold by Lambeth Council has been converted into a home.
Facilities at Rodmere Street, east Greenwich are likely to prove attractive to developers; while another long-closed toilet, at the junction of Shooters Hill Road and Academy Road in Woolwich, is also likely to be put on the market. Three toilets in Abbey Wood – at Bostall Gardens, Eynsham Drive and Grovebury Road – will also be put on the market if councillors agree a new capital strategy at next Wednesday’s full council meeting.
Greenwich’s decision to sell old toilets to balance the books is in marked contrast to its decision to spend £580,000 on converting disused conveniences at The Slade, Plumstead into a cafe to be leased to a private business, a decision which split Labour councillors.
Other properties to be sold include land at Halley Academy – the former Kidbrooke School – and a depot at Felixstowe Road, Abbey Wood, as well as former caretakers’ houses at Gordon and Deansfield schools in Eltham.
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