Roll of honour as famous quotes adorn walls of Market Street loos (From Oxford Mail)

Roll of honour as famous quotes adorn walls of Market Street loos

2:00pm Friday 1st March 2013 in News By Damian Fantato, covering Summertown, Jericho and North Oxford. Call me on 01865 425429

VISITORS to Oxford’s busiest public loos will soon feel flushed with pride.

That’s because a selection of quotes from Oxford’s brightest and best extolling the virtues of the city are to adorn Market Street toilets.

It is part of Oxford City Council’s scheme to spend nearly £450,000 on bringing all its public lavatories up to scratch over the next three years.

The Market Street WCs are currently closed for refurbishment, with the existing stainless steel fittings being replaced by a hygienic composite material. Ergonomic and vandal-resistant dryers will be fitted and better quality soap provided.

Quotes submitted by members of the public celebrating Oxford – or public toilets – will be painted on to the walls and the final selection has now been made.

The chosen quotes include old favourites such as Matthew Arnold’s “And that sweet city with her dreaming spires/She needs not June for beauty’s heightening” to slightly more unusual ones like Tommy Cooper’s quip “Well, my wife and I were married in a toilet – it was a marriage of convenience!”.

Geoff Corps, streetscene manager at Oxford City Council, said: “We are looking forward to opening the facility soon and letting the public see the work that we have done.

“I would like to thank them for their thoughts and comments over the past couple of months.”

Following a public consultation, toilets in the city centre will be given a completely new look, with fresh flowers, books and copies of the Oxford Mail’s review pages on the walls.

All the toilets will also have better lighting as well as hooks for bags and coats, and easy-to-use locks.

The city council has been working with the Oxford Mail to find out what people want from the city’s facilities, and our features editor Jeremy Smith has been appointed the city’s toilet ‘tsar’.

He said: “For a little Oscars theatricality, I’d place “I can’t see who’s in the lead – but it’s Oxford or Cambridge” third; “I was a modest, good-humoured boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable” second; and “You think they would advertise this place, to let people know it was on the map...” first, because, well, Laurel and Hardy are eternal.

“Everyone who wrote or emailed in with their suggestions deserves a huge vote of thanks as these quotes will certainly add some much-needed character to our public toilets.”

The city council owns and operates 24 public toilets across the city, as well as running a community toilet scheme where nine businesses in the city centre make their toilets available.

All of the city council’s toilets will be refurbished as part of the scheme.