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12:30pm Monday 9th August 2010 in News By Mark Chandler
A HOSPITAL toilet, supermarket and shopping centre are among the area’s top places to meet for gay sex, according to a list published online.
The Cruising Gays website has a top to bottom rundown of recommended places in Lewisham and Greenwich for cruising and cottaging - slang for romping in public loos.
Each place is given an Amazon-style star rating out of five and includes tips on how to make the most of your visit, how to get there and even whether each place has disabled access.
Surprisingly, a toilet in Queen Elizabeth Hospital gets a mention. The site advises: “Walk past the prayer room and the toilets are on the left.”
One user says: “I was looking to p*ss, the guy in the next cubicle was looking for more. Without meaning to sound cheesy, I was willing to oblige.“
Elsewhere in the borough, toilets in Woolwich’s Vincent Road and Herbert Road , Plumstead Common and Thamesmead town centre all get a favourable review.
King William Walk’s toilets are particularly popular attracting “a lot of tourists”.
Meanwhile the toilets on Charlton Park Road attract “all sorts, from gorgeous to grim”.
In Lewisham, the shopping centre’s East Walk outdoor urinals get a three-star rating for its mixed crowd of “old, young, black and white” men.
One user warns: “Genuine guys go for a p*ss, but a lot of gays and discrete enclosed urinals so you can zip up if anyone dodgy comes.”
Travellers to Hilly Fields Park are advised to head to the back of the bowls club house and warned to watch out for dog walkers.
And potential cottagers are advised that the number 47 bus stops right outside Giffin Street toilets behind Deptford’s Wavelengths leisure centre, where the middle cubicle has a spyhole, described as “small, but enough to see action in the next cubicle.”
It is not wheelchair accessible and users are warned: “On some days there's a very nosy toilet attendant, old white man in his sixties keeps his office door open and talks to passers by for hours.
“Also you get the odd crack addict coming in to have a sniff.”
Beckenham Place Park is the borough’s only hotspot to get a five-star rating.
A spokesman for South London Healthcare Trust, which runs Queen Elizabeth Hospital, said: "Our Estates Department have investigated this and can confirm that there is a gap of about 1cm near the lock on one of the cubicle doors.
"It has been reported to the on-site team and repairs to close the gap will be put into immediate effect.
"We will also be contacting the website to ask them to remove the item."
OUT AND ABOUT IN LEWISHAM
Lewisham Shopping Centre
Crystal Palace Park Parade
Ladywell Fields
Giffin Street toilets
Beckenham Place Park
Hilly Fields
....AND GREENWICH
Oxleas Woods
King William Walk toilets, Greenwich
Court Road toilets, Eltham
Arches Leisure Centre
Herbert Road toilets
Blackheath
North Greenwich tube toilets
Woolwich Sainsbury's
Plumstead Common toilets
Thamesmead town centre toilets
Maryon Wilson Park
Greenwich recreation ground
Charlton Park Road
A BRIEF HISTORY OF COTTAGING
The term comes from the appearance of old-fashioned toilet blocks which look like small cottages.
Traditionally they have been found at busy places like railway stations and university campuses.
Under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 engaging in sexual activity in a public lavatory is illegal.
It is punishable by a prison sentence of up to 6 months or a fine.
Famous people caught cottaging include actor John Gielgud and pop singer George Michael.
Comments(26)
eleanargh
says...
1:35pm Mon 9 Aug 10
It's Me again !
says...
1:35pm Mon 9 Aug 10
Erastus wrote:Totally agree and NS have just given this more publicity ! Well done
Absolutely disgusting!
nicely
says...
1:48pm Mon 9 Aug 10
Let's Agree To Differ
says...
2:13pm Mon 9 Aug 10
Biscuit
says...
2:25pm Mon 9 Aug 10
Let's Agree To Differ wrote:Lets, please don't make me laugh when I'm at work. My boss now probably wonders why I'm chuckling at the invoicing...
Wouldn't this be better in the leisure or local info section? :-) Hardly worthy of being called news. wide-burn...well it would wouldn't it ;-)
RedRevolver
says...
2:38pm Mon 9 Aug 10
What the!!!
says...
2:47pm Mon 9 Aug 10
Eagles_Man
says...
2:59pm Mon 9 Aug 10
It's Me again !
says...
4:17pm Mon 9 Aug 10
Eagles_Man wrote:Ummm is NS going to respond ?
So the NS has gone from being all moralising about removing escort ads from the classified section ... and now gives publicity to a gay cottaging website. Double standards?
eleanargh
says...
5:03pm Mon 9 Aug 10
Eagles_Man
says...
5:59pm Mon 9 Aug 10
eleanargh wrote:Both activities are consensual (excluding the few instances of people trafficking). That money changes hands for escort services (they would say it's technically for "time and companionship" to stay within the law) is irrelevant.
Escort ads and gay cottaging are completely different... one is entirely consensual activity between two people, the other is buying people for sex...
The Original Ranter
says...
8:41am Tue 10 Aug 10
StayFrosty
says...
9:41am Tue 10 Aug 10
K1rky
says...
12:04pm Tue 10 Aug 10
What the!!!
says...
12:15pm Tue 10 Aug 10
StayFrosty
says...
12:29pm Tue 10 Aug 10
GODUPERE2
says...
2:14pm Tue 10 Aug 10
Erastus
says...
3:24pm Tue 10 Aug 10
K1rky
says...
5:23pm Tue 10 Aug 10
mungia1
says...
5:33pm Tue 10 Aug 10
StayFrosty wrote:Are you sick, or a paedo? The problem is that normal people don't want to see/hear 2 blokes buggering one another, nor do they want their kids to. So don't try to justify such beastly behaviour, save it for the bedroom where it's private. Then, you can do what you like. Is this what a tolerent society has to put up with now??? Perhaps this sort of behaviour is behind some of the homophobic crime we keep reading abaout?
They're highly likely to be in a cubicle, so I doubt very much you or your young son would notice. Hopefully your son is young enough not to be as uptight about such things. So even if he did see something it might just be ok.
Seriously, what's the problem? The only danger now is that people know about it and might cause some aggro for something that's perfectly harmless.
Erastus
says...
6:37pm Tue 10 Aug 10
activist
says...
11:01am Thu 12 Aug 10
ginger joe
says...
10:14pm Tue 17 Aug 10
ksc
says...
3:01pm Sat 28 Aug 10
redfragglerock
says...
3:29am Tue 31 Aug 10
mungia1 wrote:What I can't understand is the ingrained hatred of 'normal people' who are so repulsed by same sex couples. I am not talking about the act of sex, just the reality of two men or two women together. The trouble starts, not in the toilets, but in the street. Could you imagine if two men were able to walk down the street holding hands without a fathers negative reaction, clearly seen by his son? Our children are surrounded by violence, war and hatred - yet the 'normal people' find it impossible to allow two men or two women to love each other.
StayFrosty wrote:Are you sick, or a paedo? The problem is that normal people don't want to see/hear 2 blokes buggering one another, nor do they want their kids to. So don't try to justify such beastly behaviour, save it for the bedroom where it's private. Then, you can do what you like. Is this what a tolerent society has to put up with now??? Perhaps this sort of behaviour is behind some of the homophobic crime we keep reading abaout?
They're highly likely to be in a cubicle, so I doubt very much you or your young son would notice. Hopefully your son is young enough not to be as uptight about such things. So even if he did see something it might just be ok.
Seriously, what's the problem? The only danger now is that people know about it and might cause some aggro for something that's perfectly harmless.
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Erastus says...
12:42pm Mon 9 Aug 10