A pit of mess close to the people’s homes

RESIDENTS living in Mornington Crescent say partygoers are treating their front gardens as toilets – and have called for more marshals and better access to public restrooms.

Council tenants living in houses in Crowndale Road told the New Journal that “public urination is a huge problem” as rowdy crowds from Mornington Crescent bars and clubs disperse after a night out. Mornington Crescent is home to some of the borough’s busiest bars and venues, including The Camden Bar, KOKO, and Simmons.

“Urination is a huge problem, not just for myself, but for everyone on my street,” Habibur Rahman said, adding an alleyway beside the Crowndale Centre has become “the hotspot where everyone goes to take a piss.”

He said partygoers also enter the front gardens of council tenants living along Crowndale Road.

“Others in the past have actually physically gone into my front garden and squatted down,” he added. “It’s not just men, it’s women as well. I’ve actually caught them in the act. “There was one woman where I was walking in to my house and I could see two people just standing at my gate. When I walked closer, I could see one of their friends just squat down in my front garden. I was in disbelief. What do I even say? I said, ‘what are you doing?’ One of her friends said: ‘sorry, we didn’t know.’ But what didn’t they know? Is it OK to just come into people’s garden’s and piss in them? It’s quite distressing because in my front garden, my mum grows things. People are coming in there, they’re trampling over plants, they’re urinating.”

The row of homes close to KOKO and other bars and clubs

Mr Rahman’s neighbour Ibrahim Hussain said he had experienced similar problems: “People think it’s OK to urinate in your front garden – I had to buy a [camera] doorbell because I’m getting sick and tired of these people. I caught three women trying to urinate in my front garden, they opened my gate and I went outside and caught one of them mid-action. My neighbour has kids and they’re having to step through that. I made them clean it before they left.”

Confronting people can be nerve-wracking, Mr Hussain said, adding: “You don’t know how drunken people will react.” Other problems neighbours face include noise levels, crowd dispersal after big events, littering and loitering, neighbours said.

Mr Rahman said: “There should be a formal marshal [responsible for crowd control], they should have bins outside, and public toilets: they have urinals for males [in Mornington Crescent] but I don’t think people use them anyway.”

A Camden council spokesperson said: “Camden has fantastic nightlife which we want everyone to enjoy – however, this sort of anti-social behaviour is unacceptable.“Our Community Presence Officers work closely with Camden Town Police, and additional officers also provide a further uniformed presence on Friday and Saturday nights to deal with issues like this. We are investigating the provision of women’s public toilets in the Camden Town area, including adapting the pop-up urinal in Mornington Crescent for use by women.”

Henry Fox, operations director at KOKO, said: “KOKO is proud of the work we do within our community and our local residents are of utmost importance to us. We will be collaborating with the local community to ensure that this issue is resolved. It’s important to us that we all live in a positive environment, and that starts with the welfare and care of our neighbours”.