The search is on for a missing piece of Birmingham heritage – an ornate Victorian urinal, which has inconveniently gone missing.
The cast-iron urinal was situated in King Edward Place near the city centre and offered relief for Brummies for nearly 100 years.
But it was removed in the late 1980s to make way for the city’s International Convention Centre – and that was the last that was seen of it.
The urinal was similar to others once dotted around Birmingham, including one that survives today outside the Jewellery Quarter railway station.
It had originally been planned that the listed structure was to be resurrected elsewhere in the city and the council agreed to give it to Birmingham Railway Museum in Tyseley, but it never arrived at its destination.
The hunt was sparked by blogger and web consultant Andy Mabbett at his Pigsonthewing blog.
At the time Mr Mabbett, 47, was coming to the end of his tenure as a volunteer at the museum – but never saw the toilet arrive.
He said: “I was told that the urinal had been dismantled and delivered to the museum, where it was placed in store."
The museum wrote to Mr Mabbett to tell him: "It is believed that the urinal was disposed to another museum but I regret that at this length of time there is no record of where.”
A spokesman for Birmingham City Council said there was no evidence the urinal ever left its possession and could be in storage with a host of antiquities held by the city’s museum service.
Media officer at the council Geoff Coleman, who launched the probe after reading Mr Mabbett’s blog, said: “We’re pretty sure it didn’t go to the railway museum.
"At that time a lot of museums were not looking at this sort of thing as being very special, but now it might fit in with what we do. As with any museum service, the collection not on display is quite hefty, it could be in storage, and if we could find it it would be nice.
“Heritage services are looking into it. It was 22 years ago but we have a man who likes a bit of detective work.”
Mr Mabbett said despite its apparently mundane function, the urinal was an important part of the city’s heritage.
He said: “It was very ornate and a good example of Victorian craftwork.
“There used to be quite a few of them around Digbeth a few years ago but, unlike this one, they weren’t listed.
“I’m not sure where they all went.
“If you are removing one, and I’m not saying this is what happened, it would be cheaper just to knock them down with a hammer than carefully unscrew them.”
* Anyone with information about the King Edward Place urinal can email newsdesk@birminghampost.net
