Underground Oxford Street loos’ transformation into bar can go ahead

By Ben Lynch, Local Democracy Reporter

An application to turn disused public toilets near Oxford Street into a new bar have been approved.

The Barrett Street site was shut permanently in 2021 following several periods of closure due to issues including flooding.

They have been marketed since for a range of uses, including to continue as toilets, though have received little interest.

A Westminster City council assessment found they required ‘significant investment’ to be brought up to scratch.

The application before the council’s planning sub-committee outlined a proposal by SCP Estate to revamp the toilets and run them as a bar seven-days-a-week.

The requested hours were 11am to 11pm Monday to Saturday, and until 10.30pm on Sunday. No more than 34 people are to be allowed in at a time.

Claire Clark, associate director at Rolfe Judd Planning, representing the applicant, told the sub-committee the proposal would enable ‘this vacant basement to be brought back into an exciting use’.

She said Westminster’s property team had sought to get rid of the premises having considered it surplus to requirements, and that in more than three years of marketing, there had been no interest from a new toilet operator or company looking to put it to an alternative use.

The applicant had made an offer, she added, subject to planning approval being granted.

Cllr Paul Fisher, Chair of the sub-committee queried concerns about anti-social behaviour (ASB) at the premises and was told the ASB recorded at the toilets was fairly low-level, typically drug taking and vandalism.

The council-owned premises will become the latest public toilets to be transformed into a bar or put to alternative use.

It follows on from the likes of WC Clapham, Attendant coffee roasters in Fitzrovia, and Bermondsey Arts Club near Borough Station.

Pictured top: The Barrett Street toilets (Picture: Westminster City council)