This previous porta-potty has been changed into a library — and it smells ‘as candy as a nut’ 

Transcript

The residents of Hawksland, Scotland, actually like studying on the bathroom.

Extra particularly, they actually like studying on the transportable outside rest room that is been scrubbed clear, boarded over and transformed right into a free neighborhood library.

“[It’s] highly regarded. Kids and adults, alike, from virtually cradle to grave,” Dorothy Combe, who got here up with the thought, advised As It Occurs host Carol Off. 

“It is superb. I am actually delighted.”

‘Fundraising and enjoyable elevating’

Combe is a member of a neighborhood group that raises cash for native charities and occasions. 

“We’ve got a small group inside our hamlet, which is a fundraising group, and we’ve got enjoyable on the identical time. So it is fundraising and enjoyable elevating,” she stated. 

“However due to COVID-19, we’re having to distance.”

The group is possession of three porta-potties, considered one of which was damaged.

“I assumed to myself, we’re all studying extra. We will not go to a e book store as a result of they’re closed. We will not go to charity outlets and get second-hand books as a result of they’re closed. Then why not share the books that we’re all studying?” Combe stated.

“And the porta-potty was sitting there doing nothing. So we thought, go for it.”

The library is free to make use of, however inside, there’s details about how folks can donate to the neighborhood group.

Combe says any cash raised shall be distributed amongst three charities — the Glasgow Metropolis Mission, the Scottish Wildlife Belief, and The Haven, a useful resource centre for folks with life-altering diseases and their caregivers. 

‘Flush with success’

The porta-potty is ready up on the facet of the street on the centre of city. It is locked to forestall theft, however members of the neighborhood have the mix, she stated.

It is bought a contemporary coat of paint, and while you open it up, you see three partitions of shelving, every filled with books, DVDs, board video games and puzzles, all donated by neighborhood members.

There’s additionally a bottle of hand sanitizer.

“Straight forward would usually be the place one would sit down and do one’s enterprise. That is nonetheless there, however it’s been utterly fumigated, disinfected, bleached and lined over with shelving,” Combe stated. 

Mike Taylor, chairman of the neighborhood council, advised the Day by day Document newspaper the library’s reputation has the neighborhood feeling “flushed with success.”

The W.C. Studying Room — named for the late Willie Combe

An indication on the entrance welcomes porta-potty patrons to the “W.C. Studying Room” — named for the euphemism “water closet” and for Combe’s late husband Willie Combe, a person who liked studying on the bathroom.

Requested how her husband would really feel about having a bathroom library named in his honour, she stated:  “He would snort his socks off. He could be actually delighted.”

Just like the Little Free Libraries discovered in lots of cities, the W.C. Studying Room operates on the honour system.

“It is simply as much as you what you wish to take,” Combe stated. “However we’d hope that you’d return it while you’re completed in order that anyone else can use it.”

It is an concept that she hopes will catch on.

“Within the age of recycling, I feel it is such a jolly good thought and it might be a disgrace if it did not take off,” she stated.

“However I am actually delighted that we have been the pioneers on this.”

After all, one of many downsides to porta-potties is their tendency to have a lingering odour, however Combe insists the W.C. Studying Room has been completely strain washed and bleached.

Requested in regards to the scent, she stated: “There is not one. It is as candy as a nut.”

Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Sarah Cooper.