วีดีโอ

If you walk round the St Stephens subway, and examine the large rectangular recesses in the walls, two of them are actually large panels with padlocks at the bottom. They were the entrances to the toilets, which presumably are still there.

Hi John, as a 50 something Norwich boy I'm loving your content. Could you look into the Squats on Argyll St in the 70s and 80s and the filming of 'Memoir Of A Surivor' starring Julie Christie? Just a thought, all the best 👍

'What did the ladies do?' I recall this ditty from my childhood... UPON BEING ASKED FOR A PENNY FOR TWO HA'PENNIES Look lidy, foller Olive Snell To 'oom yore accident befell It 'appened, as it does ter many That Olive went ter spend a penny. She searched 'er bag, an' 'ad jis' one, An' that wuz bent! So, wot she dun? She went an' found a spinney shady An sived 'erself the penny, lidy!

I'm surprised at the omission of the Chapelfield Park loos, with the gents - uniquely, perhaps - largely located within one of the mediaeval city wall towers.

Thank you this was really interesting. I've never been to Norwich but your videos make me want to visit

when I lived in a truck I used to fill up a 5 gallon container with boiling hot water from the Grapes hill loo to heat it in the winter !!!!

Policemen used to crawl on top of the one in st Andrews to spy on men cottaging I have been told ??!! citation please .

I believe the ones under the St Stephens roundabout are still intact behind the boarding, these should be re-opened but keys just be given to bus drivers as there is nowhere for them to go in the evening in the city centre.

I remember the underground ones below the paved island across the road from the old ABC Cinema on Prince of Wales Road, they were a very similar ornate porcelain to the ones under the market but on a smaller scale. they were filled in and covered over in the eighties.

Thank you so much for your consistently excellent videos. I was in my old home city of Norwich last week and walked around several areas that you have covered, seeing things I hadn't seen before.

It used to be said that Norwich had a pub for every day of the year and a church for every week. It's good to see that many of both survive.

The St Stephen’s underpass toilets stunk in the early 2010s the council had to do some work on them but I would have to hold my breath when using to head to the bus station! I think they were frequented by unsavory types which is why they were closed.

Another great and interesting video, John, thanks. As others have mentioned, there were indeed toilets in Anglia Square at that location - fitted with blue ‘anti-heroin’ lights to boot!

I remember putting a water supply on some 40+ years ago for a new modern toilet on The Walk somewhere near where Primark is now, I think these were self cleaning toilets, don’t think they were there long…

Yes, there were definitely toilets in that passageway in Anglia Square as I had to use them at least once. My family first moved to Norfolk in 1968 when I was 12 and I occasionally used the underground gents at the market. To say that I "learned a lot of interesting facts of life" from the graffiti on the inside of the cubicle doors in that toilet is an understatement!

Another great video Such a shame that our wonderful local corrupt council thinks that they know what the public want They rip the heart out of our buildings and communities all over our beautiful city And simply replace with chappy office buildings which doesn't help the ordinary people in fact it displaces them 1st Then they build that eyesore multi storey carpark right on the roundabout You take Queens Street it was full of beautiful bay fronted terrace houses Just think in around 1969 average prices for Terrace houses £460 Brand new 3 bungalow £1400 As I said before I was born in the mid sixties on a rough tough council estate learnt amateur boxing from a very very early age And I have travelled the world and done some pretty amazing things and scary stuff which to me was fun lol My bay front terrace house was called Gladstone villa so called named after the famous early 1900 cricket player Close to the cricket club over lakenham Sadly no demolished The pavilion was a thatched beautiful building and Harry S. Owned all the sports clubs and land all around Norwich I use to speak to him regularly when my 2 sons went to Richard Vince blackbelt academy Many years ago And Harry's one GOLDEN WISH Was everything was left to stay as it was He was very frightened of his son after his death either selling off all the sports club property and land all around Norwich to make way for houses He tried many times to get me to sign documents to save all of that but sadly I didn't realise how bad it was with his son And I'd just got back into my feet and built up my Roofing business only for my wto pull the Rug from beneath my feet lol You can't make this up lol How id wished now I had listened more to Harry and signed those documents Because we would have still the lakenham cricket club The sad part is these people were super rich but very very unhappy and unhappy with each other I know Norwich like the back of my hands and is still the best city in the world Sadly we don't have any Flowers compared like eighties and nineties anymore Please give John a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel

Fascinating! I hadn't realised those cornerstones were anti-peeing devices! Great video 👍😀

So nice to see AUDs mentioned. I've just read the book on them and taken the tour.

Wasn't there a Gents toilet on the end of the Whitefriars bridge?

Yes, there were some down that alley in Anglia Square, they were sealed off around 2020, the ones in the subway were sealed off years ago, they were all gross and stunk. There use to be toilets on Brigg st, top of the bus station and the "musical toilet" on Redwell st, now all gone

The men loos at the bottom of grapes hill were a well known cottaging spot. Frequently anti social behaviour around public loos, including sex, drugs, maybe not rock & roll so much. But often a reason for closing them down.

I remember the toilets in St stephens subway, I sometimes used them on way to college. Quite often there was an elderly lady who carried bags of belongings in a supermarket trolley. Nick- named the bag lady. They tried to rehouse her several times but she always went back to the streets. She would use the toilets to have a wash in every morning.

The underground toilets at the front of the market were, by most standards, a pretty grand affair as I recall. Lots of polished copper & brass, plus thick glass blocks in the ceiling for natural light.

Showing my age, I reckon I used all of those featured, including the ones under St Stephens and the current market ones

I think there were some public toilets by the bridge on Whitefriars near Fishergate and Pyes Yard. Or did I imagine that? At least 4 decades ago.

Yes, StStephens subway (under the roundabout) had toilets

Harry Selfridge was the first to provide toilets in a department store in 1909....so...I wonder if the ladies could ' powder their noses ' in the shops whilst the men were using the ones the council provided? Didn't you tell us that their had been ' ' 'conveniences ' in the Arcade on Gentleman's Walk ? Thank you for another great video .... really enjoyed that 😂😂 Well done 👏 ps I am old enough to remember a notice that said " Gentlemen, please adjust your dress " by the door of the lavatories 😮

Time travel in public toilets... That takes the pi$$

I remember the st stephens ones, from above you can still see the air vent for them. Unless I'm mis remembering, wasnt there a 'superloo' in norwich in the 80's, you know the lozange shaped structure with a curved stainless steel rotating open door? It would clean itself when done and cost something absurd like 20p in the mid 80's to use? Just escapes me where it was, but I'm thinking somewhere near st Andrews carpark?

Anglia square and the subway were toilets

Thank you John, as always a fine video with great narration. It's so annoying that so many of the public lavatories are closed or have been demolished. I'm told that the council are not required to provide or maintain them so the simple option is to get rid of them leaving only the bare minimum in place. Whether that's true or not, I don't know but with hardly anywhere to go for relief whatever must visitors to our Fine City think?

I often had the same problem in Southampton in coming out of a toilet into a different time zone. I came out of one toilet just below Bar and did not notice before it was too late that I had come out two years before it was built in 1898, and thus had to get a job and rent a house for two years before I could get back to 1975. I nearly had the same problem later on in the year in Birmingham but was able to get back just in time. The worst time change I had in leaving a toilet was when I was deposited in 1941 during an air raid. I flushed the toilet and opened the door to 122 people using it as an air raid shelter.

Another fine video John, I have used one or two of them over the years, its only when they have gone and you see things in your videos you think "I remember them" and had not even noticed they had gone. The toilets in Anglia square were on the right as seen from your photo, they were small, dark, and dank, and were the type you only used if you really had too. There was also a modern all metal toilet hut outside Debenhams for a short while, when did that go?

Very inserting as always. I used to live in Clover Hill so I would walk to the Bowthorpe School and back and I was there from 1984 to 1988. The year I left it had been decided they wouldn't take in any new students and the final intake would no doubt finish in a very empty school. I remember one morning I was driving my first wife and I to work one morning and tried to sneak down the bus lane. I thought I could see a police car down the road opposite the shops on Earlham Green Lane and told her. In the end though it was easier to face the police than her stubborn argument that someone had just got through there okay, and at least I'd been proved right, at a cost!

St Stephens roundabout had mens on one walkway and women's on another,remember as a child visiting Norwich always going in there with Dad lol

also another concrete one closed on Whitefriars bridge, another underground at the bottom of Prince of Wales Road, small one outside the gate on Bishopsgate Road, I don't remember the cast iron pissoir of the cattle market but it's destruction was a loss the the heritage of Norwich

You forgot the market toilets John! And maybe the forum ones, if they count as public?

Thanks for another interesting video.

When I lived in Waddington Street, off the Dereham Road, the Grapes Hill lavatories were a blessed place of relief after sessions in the Festival House, the Red Lion (now known as the Dog House), Back's and many other establishments. That Watney's Starlight certainly ran through fast enough.

There were also ladies and gents toilets in the row of shops (now demolished) adjacent to the cattle market leading to the castle.

There were/are toilets on the market under the motorcycle parking area.

😮😮😮😮

There were toilets at the top end of Queen's road /Surrey Street.

Also- I used to be the supervisor for the cleaning team at some Norwich toilets (it was as far as I know the only time they were actually cleaned properly!) the toilets in Tombland were supposedly originally a bomb shelter for WW2. The story was that this explains the shape of the sloped walls above ground, as they were originally made out of sandbags piled up. Apparently after the war they didn’t know what to do with the building, so they decided to turn them into toilets. They became somewhat “misused”, when going in to lock up one evening I accidentally walked in on two gentlemen, one was in a position I can only describe as he looked like he was praying to the other 🤨. Also if anyone remembers a homeless lady called “Fag Ash Lil”, she used to go in the ladies there every day, and take one of the large toilet rolls and shred it, and place the whole thing inside her tights to keep her warm. She would remove the previous day’s lot and put it all over the floor! There were also toilets at the back of the market, underneath the Memorial Garden, which by my time there were unused. The entrance was between the stalls at the back row. One of my guys used to be the cleaner for the toilets at the side of the market under the motorcycle park. I don’t know if they are still there as I moved away 10 years ago.

There were toilets under the St Stephen’s roundabout, I remember my mum taking me in there in the 70’s. There were also toilets in Anglia Square, they were behind the stairs, opposite what was the musical instrument shop. I used to take my children in there in the 90’s. They had the horrid blue lights that were supposed to stop people injecting drugs.

Another great video ,Thank you.

Those were toilets in Anglia Square. They closed around the same time as the COVID pandemic started and never reopened, with various excuses given. Most people just think that they're taking the piss.

There were toilets in Chapelfield subway too, and there were both male and female ones. They’ve been closed for some time now.

Another great video. Thanks.

I used the toilets in St Stephens subway.