Hackney has 2,000 bed spaces for the homeless. But why would a hard-working Polish builder want to spend the night with troubled down-and-outs when he could doss down in a clean toilet cubicle for just 20p?
"I can see why they do it because it must be the cheapest accommodation in Hackney," the manager of a key-cutters opposite the octagonal block of six pristine toilets on Stamford Hill tells the Daily Mail. Indeed, as the paper reports, the accommodation "boasts a separate front door, central heating, a lavatory, basin, soap dispenser, mirror, peg, hand dryer and waste bin" - luxuries that not every bedsit in London can offer - though the Poles prefer the greater sleeping space available in the two disabled cubicles and have been known to squabble over them.
Needless to say, a daily cleaning service is thrown in, although some of the Poles reportedly lock themselves into the cubicles during the day to catch up on sleep, preventing the cleaners from getting in. "We do see this as a problem," says Hackney council. Still, at least the resourceful Poles are not pushing up house prices (now rising by an average £70 a day in London) or occupying official council housing,which ought to please the Mail and local politicians alike.
Over in the Times' Bricks and Mortar supplement, page 8: "For £6.5m you can live right next door to Hampton Court Palace."
* This story comes from today's Wrap, Guardian Unlimited's digest of the papers. Get the best of all the national dailies to your inbox for £2 a month, or the price of ten nights in a Hackney loo.
