DERELICT Grade II listed toilets have been sold for £31,500 at auction, with plans to convert the site into a café.

The guide price for the disused Victorian gentlemen’s toilets, in Alexandra Road, Pill, was £4,000 but the site later sold for almost eight times higher on Thursday.

The price for the toilets shot up after a man and a woman entered a bidding war at the auction in Cardiff.

The new owner of the toilets said she plans to convert the toilet block into a café.

Following the sale the new owner, who did not wish to be named, said: “I was determined to get the property and I am delighted to have been able to buy this wonderful building.

“I now plan to submit an application to turn the building into a café or coffee shop.”

Auctioneer Paul Fosh, owner of Newport-based Paul Fosh Auctions, said: “That was really quite astonishing. The sale created a huge amount of interest beforehand so, as we sometimes do with quirky or popular properties, we had a sweep in the office as to how much people thought that the toilets would go at the auction.

“The eventual sale price was almost eight times or 800 per cent above guide which, to be frank, blew all our sweep estimates out of the water.”

He added: “The pair of bidders seemed very determined and matched each other neck and neck all the way from the start with the price rising steadily in increments of £500. I’m delighted with the price achieved. I only wish that I had more loos to sell.”