The City of London Corporation, the ancient governing body of the Square Mile, has been compelled to take an unprecedented and decidedly unglamorous step. In December 2025, it launched a public information campaign and strategy aimed at stopping people from defecating on the district's pavements.
A Quaint Council Confronts a Modern Crisis
Known for its archaic traditions like the Lord Mayor's Show and the right of Freemen to drive sheep over London Bridge, the City Corporation's roots stretch back to Anglo-Saxon times. Its roles include a Remembrancer and a Swordbearer, figures more accustomed to ceremony than sanitation crises. However, the reported rise in human waste on public streets has forced this historic institution into a very modern and grubby battle.
The situation, as reported by CityAM, suggests the problem is not isolated. The need for a formal anti-defecation strategy implies the issue has reached a scale significant enough to warrant official action. Streets in the capital's premier financial district, once symbolically "paved with gold," are now being soiled in a most literal and unpleasant manner.
Signs of a Society in Decline?
For long-time observers of the area, this represents a stark departure from the past. Commentators like James Ford, a former advisor to Mayor Boris Johnson, recall a time in the late 2000s when leaving City bars did not involve navigating such hazards. The phenomenon prompts serious questions about the state of London's nighttime economy, public decency, and broader social standards.
Some view it as a potential dirty protest against economic conditions or a symbol of late-stage capitalist decay. Ford himself references Edward Gibbon's "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," pondering if such behaviour is a clear indicator of civilisational retrogression. While expected in some parts of the city or abroad, its occurrence in the meticulously maintained Square Mile is seen as particularly shocking and symptomatic of a deeper societal failure.
A Failure of Decency, Not Policy
The article argues that this is not a failure of public policy, which long ago provided the solution in the form of the modern flushing toilet. Instead, it is framed as a profound collapse of basic human decency and self-restraint. The very notion that a local authority must remind adults not to use the street as a toilet is, in this view, a startling sign that something has gone "very, very wrong with society."
Ultimately, the City of London's bizarre new campaign highlights a clash between the district's ancient, orderly heritage and a coarse, modern problem. It leaves officials grappling with an issue that no amount of traditional pageantry can solve, forcing a confrontation with a baser aspect of urban life in the 21st century.
