Southend High Street's underground toilets were consigned to the town's history books once and for all as workers moved to fill them full of concrete.

Flushed away - the steps leading to the High Street's underground toilets Picture: STEVE O'CONNELL 4KH561

The loos were first installed in the town centre as part of its conversion into a pedestrian precinct in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Their fate was sealed when a state-of-the-art facility was built in Pitmans Close, just off Tylers Avenue, as part of a regeneration scheme for the area.

Once filled with concrete, the old toilets will be paved over and buried beneath the pedestrian walkway.

Plans to convert them into an underground bar were abandoned earlier this year because substantial engineering work would have to be undertaken to make the plan possible.

Published Friday September 10, 2004

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