Getting Their Heads Down: Polish Workers Sleep In Toilets
“PEOPLE are turning up with rucksacks and sleeping bags and they get nice accommodation fully maintained and with a bathroom for just 20p a night.”
So says Martin Edwards, manager of the Keycut Services shop by the octagon block of toilets in Hackney, East London.
We do not know where Mr Edwards resides and how he came to consider a toilet block a compact and bijou central London address. We only observe the London borough’s sink estates and sick buildings. And look at the newly built toilets,
The building is, as the Mail reports, worth £246,000 – which is just about the going rate in London for a 2ft 6in by 3ft 10in room.
But not everyone is able to make use of this pod hotel, with its central heating, secure locks, hot and cold running effluent and complimentary snacks shaped like little blue bricks.
The place has, apparently, been taken over by Polish immigrants.
Each night, Polish labourers arrive at the bogtel and settle down for the night. But not all is harmonious and fighting break our between they who seek the larger disabled suites (6ft 8in by 4ft 10in).
Anh Luong, of the nearby Lisa Star Nails shop, says: “Sometimes people who want to use the loos are so intimidated they ask to use the one in my shop instead.”
Does Lisa let them? Again, the Mail does not supply the full picture. But in our experience asking to use the toilet in a London shop is often met with a firm “No!” and some industrial language.
So the toilets are now beds. And as a Hackney Council spokesman says: “We do not see this as a problem.”
The Mail’s view seems out of kilter with official opinion. And out of touch with the role of the public convenience in modern life – Men’s toilets are routinely offered as places for men to get their heads down…
Posted: 4th, May 2007 | In: Strange But True Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
