VICTORIAN toilets should be put back into use as public lavatories, council chiefs have been told.

The call came after it emerged there are Town Hall plans to convert disused conveniences in Clerkenwell Green into a new community space.

The hoarding around the Victorian toilets with their newly unveiled mural

The toilets were this week wrapped in a colourful mural but the debate will now rage on what should happen to the facility.

They were opened in the 1880s and were designed by George Jennings, a plumber who invented the first public flushing loos but have long been out of action.

Labour councillor Matt Nathan said on Thursday the council had planned to remove the historic fittings and fixtures, including an Italian mosaic floor, porcelain toilet bowls and brass taps.

“We would like the toilets to be converted into something that could be used as an ad hoc community space,” he said.

“So you can put on ­little exhibitions, little talks to get people in. I’m quite a big fan of public toilets actually, but they are incredibly expensive to run. And I wouldn’t want to do a toilet where you had to charge.”

Cllr Nathan said Islington planned to get started on work next year to change the toilets along with pedestrianising parts of the Green.

But his words shocked members of the Clerkenwell Green Preservation Society (CGPS), set up in 2002 by founder Ann Pembroke in part to save the toilets, which closed in 1981.

She said: “The council has done no consultation on this at all. We’re absolutely appalled”, adding that there was no need for another public space as the area was already well provided for.

Instead, there was a “complete dearth” of public toilets.

The CGPS has the support of Age UK and the Victorian Society in its fight to get Clerkenwell Green’s toilets open again.

Calling the proposed removal of the toilets “piracy”, Ms Pembroke added: “We’re so fortunate to have the original toilets. If they sell them off they’ll just have to get them back or build new ones. It’s sabotage.”

Another Victorian toilet in Clerkenwell that remains closed is the convenience outside the closed fire station in Mount Pleasant. Ms Pembroke said another had closed in Clerkenwell Road and been converted into a nail bar.

In 1851 at the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, Mr Jenning’s toilets were a major part of the ­spec­tacle having never been experienced by the public before.

Ms Pembroke said for many elderly people living in the area an available toilet was an “absolute necessity”.

She insisted around £2m was recently raised to refurbish the toilets as part of a campaign to restore Clerkenwell Green to its former glory.

Ms Pembroke warned the society would seek legal advice and could even appeal for an injunction.

An Islington Council spokesperson said: “We know how important it is that public toilets are available across the borough.

“We are in the process of examining how we can best increase availability, including modernising existing automated public toilets, more effectively promoting other publicly accessible toilets across the borough, and delivering on the commitment to work in partnership with local businesses to provide greater access to their facilities.”