Within a week of a Conservative councillor grumbling on social media about the “awful misogyny” of having mixed-sex signs on toilet doors at the Fairfield Halls, the management at the arts venue has abandoned the idea and removed the offending stickers.
Mixed messaging: Fairfield Halls management has now removed the gender-neutral sign
The idea of “gender neutral toilets”, where men or women could use the same facilities, was briefly tried in what’s been called the “John Whitgift Cube”, which is basically the daytime caff next to the Fairfield Halls, built as part of the venue’s controversial £70million refurbishment, which has adopted the title of the borough’s biggest landowner, presumably in return for a few bob towards its running costs.
Without going into too many graphic details, it has been long-established practice for many women, when confronted with queues to use women-only toilets, simply to nip into the gent’s next door for its … well… convenience. With, or without, any mixed-use signs.
But what seemed odd about the signage used at The Cube was that while the gender-neutral sign went up on the women’s toilet door – suggesting that men might make use of the “ladies'” – no such sign appeared on the gent’s.
This was flagged up on Twitter last weekend. “Today’s slow clap is for The Cube cafe in Croydon – they’ve added a handy unisex sticker to the ladies loos, but the men’s is still for, well, the menz.
“Fairfield Halls tell us, pray, why men’s privacy and dignity matters, but not women’s? Dying to hear it.”
Influential: Tory councillor Alasdair Stewart
Thrusting young Tory councillor Alasdair Stewart (he’s only been a councillor since last year, but is already deputy cabinet member for finance) spotted this and tweeted: “Really disappointed to see this at Fairfield Halls. Everyone deserves single sex facilities. I hope BHLive…”, who manage the Halls on behalf of the council… “urgently reconsider this awful misogyny.”
It seems that the Halls did reconsider… Inside Croydon contacted the Fairfield management, and almost a week later, after some a reminder, we were issued with the following statement: “There are facilities for all at the Cube café and throughout the building.
“The signage that’s been highlighted has now been removed.”
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