Bin alley ballet

Saltaire's neat terraces all have service alleys running between them. The houses each have small backyards, many still containing the stone outhouse in which their private lavatory was sited (though many of the outhouses have been reduced in height now). These sanitary arrangements were a major innovation in Victorian Britain, and I think I'm correct in saying that they were WCs (water closets) with proper drainage, so the 'night soil' men didn't have to roam the alleys at night collecting waste, as they did in other places that had only earth closets.

Nowadays, our bathrooms are inside. The back alleys are crowded with wheelie bins, since most of the yards don't really have room for the green general waste and grey recyclable waste bins that we are required to have. In my imagination, the bins all come alive at night and perform a wondrous ballet in the alley.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that was an urban fox running up the alley in my photo. In fact it was a rather large ginger cat.