TOURISTS in Oxford will have the chance to spend their holiday in a former toilet if a planning bid gets the go-ahead.

The men’s loos in St Giles were opened more than a century ago but were closed by the city council in 2008 after safety worries.

Now the new owners, who run a bed and breakfast in Summertown, want to rent both units out to visitors if they get permission for the major revamp.

The toilets are at the southern end of St Giles, opposite Martyrs’ Memorial and across the road from the Randolph Hotel and the Ashmolean Museum.

Glazed canopies would be built over the toilets and railings around them would be restored.

Four years ago, the city council agreed with the owners of the Galaxie Hotel, based in Banbury Road, that the spot – which it has owned since 2014 – could be reused as offices.

Harries-Jones Limited said bookings would be taken for up to a week – but that the average visitor would stay for an average of three nights.

The company said that the addition would provide a ‘unique opportunity’ to visitors to Oxford and ‘add quality and choice’ in the city.

Edward Gillibrand, from Original Field of Architecture, which designed the new rooms, said: “We feel it will be an exciting space to make it possible to see a different part of Oxford that has not been visible for some years.”

He added: “It had been very challenging. It’s context which is quite overwhelming. You’re surrounded on every side by an Oxford landmark. The challenge is to be innovative and to be respectful of everything.”

Amongst that innovation will be a way of supplying clean air to the rooms.

Mr Gillibrand said a plant room would be needed because ‘if you stand there at rush hour it can be a little smelly’.

A maximum of two people would be able to stay in each of the rooms at one time. Staff would travel down from Summertown by bus to clean the rooms daily.

The county council, as the highways authority, said it has no problem with the development going ahead.

Oxford Preservation Trust was found to be ‘quite apprehensive’ about the proposed glass canopies. Oxford Civic Society gave ‘cautious approval’, according to planning documents.

The proposal is set to be decided by September 24.