The secret party history of London's £1 million toilet

Public Life grew in stature as a venue in tandem with Liz and Sonia's baby evolving into an essential weekend stop-off, back when the term 'underground' meant exactly that. The community was a small one, many of today's best-known DJs were still on the up and up and the vibes were strong.

"It was an amazing atmosphere, once you got in - which was hard enough with such limited space – it was a really safe haven, with no security walking around. Everyone knew each other, and if they didn't, it was small enough that they would by the end of the night," says Liz. "There were no selfies, or people taking constant videos and photos of the DJs. People didn't get their phones out because they were having too much fun. People went there to dance.

"Our New Year's Day parties were special, they'd go on for hours. You could never repeat that, those times; it was the right people, right space, right time," she continues. "People didn't take themselves too seriously in those days, DJs would come and play for fun, it wasn't about the money for them or us. It was about the passion, the music, fun and love for what we were doing."

Sadly, in London most clubs are never more than a few hundred metres from the nearest residential properties and such wanton enjoyment angered locals who mounted a campaign to get the place shut down.

"When Sonia and I first started we battled with the resident's association, it was full of bigwigs," Liz says. "There was one guy who would sit on the corner by the The Golden Heart pub every week and film everyone coming in and out of the party."

In the face of strong local opposition, Public Life managed to keep on going for several years, even though local newspaper reports sought to demonise the venue at every opportunity. Local action organisation Spitalfields Community Group started their campaign to close the venue in 2007, so it took five years for them to eventually get it shut down. In that time, all manner of fun and frivolity occurred at Public Life, memories of which will be etched indelibly into its very walls.

"That era can never can be recreated, it was a really special time. We still love it, it's still our baby. We did the best we could to make it special, to make people want to keep coming back. Out of that we now do stages at festivals, we've got a production company – Kubicle in its grown-up form. Those 11 years since it started have been monumental in my life," Liz says enthusiastically.

A million quid seems a bit steep for an old toilet, but the Public Life years were priceless.

Kubicle turns 11 years old this summer

Marcus Barnes is a freelance journalist and regular contributor to Mixmag, follow him on Twitter here