I was at a meeting in Southwark last week and walked past a somewhat well-known street sign, one that I’d pass most mornings on a commute I used to make daily for about four years.

I only recently found out that ‘COMMIT NO NUISANCE’ was code for ‘No public urination’.

These signs date back to at least Victorian times, and this was a big public health issue. (Some would point to places where it still is.)

 

Say what you mean

For those of us who try to get across messages every day, being clear about what you mean is pretty central to our existence. We’re not poets, after all.

Sometimes it feels like the use of English in the UK is just as wrapped up in centuries of implied meaning and double speak as ever. Is it true that people are more direct in the US, Canada, Australia and elsewhere?

Probably, to varying degrees.

 

Also: Commit Nuisance

So be direct. Don’t be misunderstood.

But… also have some fun.

In my five minutes of research for this post, I was struck by a movement for ‘COMMIT NUISANCE’ or ‘COMMIT SOME NUISANCE’ signs. This includes one for Bankside, ‘Bankside’ being a bit of a rebrand of the Southwark area where I was walking in 2018.

Maybe what the British lack in directness, we make up for in humour. And that’s a powerful force, too.

 

[Hero image credit: “Commit no nuisance sign, Doyce Street, London” by Steve Fareham, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph A.]