Although this lavatory is no longer in use it gained notoriety in the 1960s as the place where Wilfred Brambell, star of the sitcom Steptoe and Son, was arrested for soliciting gay sex; having recognized Brambell the undercover officer read him his rights then concluded the arrest with the programme’s most famous catchphrase, which was, fittingly, ‘You dirty old man!’
Whilst Brambell was used to having the phrase shouted at him by the public he felt that its use in this context (this being several years before homosexuality was decriminalized) was somewhat inappropriate, but did not say anything in the hope that it would be a one off occurrence. Much to Brambell’s chagrin, however, the phrase went on to be repeated by almost everyone he encountered during the judicial process and his resentment of the programme from which it came became intense. When the judge summed up by saying, ‘I sentence you to be fined twenty pounds… You dirty old man!’ it was the last straw for Brambell; although he continued to work on the programme for several years his bitterness was irreversible and TV historians have cited Brambell's experience as the event that began the decline of one of Britain's most popular sitcoms.
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