Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
trated here, and on my pointing out the resemblance of the water tanks to fish tanks, he
told me, to my delight, that a previous attendant had actually used them for this purpose. It
seemed to me that the fish must have been surprised to find their breathing space restricted
and themselves coming down in the world each time the stalls were flushed, and what they
made of the copper ball tap in their water I could not imagine. However, keeping fish in a
lavatory tank is a delightfully rococo, or rather fin de siècle , idea, and might be copied with
decorative results. There is also a certain logic about it which appeals to me, and it is won-
derfully intriguing to imagine what the men using the place thought of the fish; more im-
portant, what the fish thought of the men. My attendant friend told me that there were very
few old lavatories left in London (fewer still even today in the West End where the great
landowners frowned on them). He called old conveniences 'Queen Victorias', a somewhat
startling terminology. I was told that 'the lavatory in Charing Cross Road was the place to
go if you want the writing on the wall … make your blood run cold, it would'. Charing
Cross Road had been cleaned up before my tour of inspection, and so I found no writing
on the wall. This lavatory, on an isolated site, is marked by one of the most splendid gas
lamps in London, painted in black and gold and equalled only by the ramp at the back of
St Clement Danes in the Strand and the pair in Trafalgar Square; all, however, are now
electrified. Holborn remains one of my favourites, for the gas jets are still intact over the
water closets, and there are electric bulbs of Edwardian date which bend over like white
tulips. The lavatory at the junction of King's Cross Road and Pentonville Road was once,
I believe, like the one in Rosebery Avenue, a privately owned affair - an odd way to make
a living.
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