Public Spaces, Private Property
When it comes to ‘progress’, I’m sometimes reminded of that Hugh and Laurie sketch that imagines that the police are to be privatised, a.k.a. a public good being taken into private ownership and monetised.
The sinking feeling this gives rise to was inspired by seeing what has become of the Cuming Museum in Walworth Road. The recently renovated building glows invitingly in its sensitively placed lighting, but it’s no longer the public resource it once was. Its collection is now housed in a bland box next door.
The sinking feeling becomes a rather more pressing one when you consider the number of public lavatories that have been closed and flogged off to a private enterprise. The one at the bottom of Aldwych occupies a prime location for central London revellers, but it will cost you more than a penny to get in now – to be fair, you’ll get a cocktail as well, but wrinklies who are frail of bladder might feel a bit out of place.
This is being replicated across the country: this year there are loos for sale in Rossendale, Penzance, Cheltenham and countless other places. C & M Online (a body that represents cleaning and maintenance professionals) predicts that if current trends continue, the number of public toilets in the UK will have halved in 25 years (a trend that was given a big boost by Covid, it has to be said).
Let us now turn to the Post Office, to wallow further into the Slough of Despond. Desperate to avoid paying £1.65 to post a Christmas card, Mr Verity and I wrote ours early and I went to the post office in Streatham (no longer a separate building, just a upstairs corner of WH Smith), Having bought a quantity of second class stamps I stood next to the counter to stick them on, and witnessed a procession of punters coming away from the counter disappointed: the parcel their online search showed would cost £30 to send would actually cost £60 (30g over 2 kilos); their package would not arrive in time for Christmas; they hadn’t filled in a form online beforehand, etc., etc. Nothing can exceed the enormity of the Post Office Scandal, but the hinterland to it is the degradation of a once-innovative and beloved institution.[1]
Around 99% of post offices are now run by franchise partners, whereas in France, for example, the postal service is run by a state-owned company (the citizenry revolted to ensure this remained the case!) which has developed new services and invested wisely of late. The picture above of the main post office in La Roche-sur-Yon (pop. C, 55,000) seems to sum up the esteem in which the French hold ‘La Poste’.
Finally, and with a heavy heart, we turn to housing. Regular readers may remember our profile of the incomparable ‘ethical socialist’ Ada Salter. One of her many legacies was the well-designed and well-built social housing in Bermondsey. Long since sold off under ‘right to buy’, one of these houses will set you back around £900,000. Nearby, the once-public resource of Bermondsey Town Hall has become swanky flats,, also costing an average of £900,000. Meanwhile, those in need of affordable housing are being shunted off into cheapo office conversions, only 22% of which meet the minimum standard for space in new homes…
Perhaps the only ray of light to dispel this gloom is the imminent completion of the King Charles III England Coast path – I feel we should be tramping it in relays to stake our claim over it in perpetuity.
[1] A post-Christmas present? A slip through the door informed us that an ‘item’ of post for us had insufficient postage paid on it and we needed to pay £5 online to receive it. We did so – and the item in question turned out to be a card!
Great article thank you.
Thanks!
Oh Verity… how my blood pressure has risen reading your article . I certainly need a good walk along the coastal path to bring it down.
We too paid £5 for a post- Christmas card ( a very tiny one too) which lacked a stamp.
As for the reduction in public conveniences… what a disgrace!
I almost feel I’ve been scammed by the Post Office!