Cheese or chocolate.

[Bored Of Education]

The fantastic news that the Philharmonic in Liverpool has got grade II listed status stirs me to try and compile a list of the best public toilets*. All help gladly accepted.

The Liverpool Philharmonic
PJ Clarke's, New York**
Twerton Park Bath End South side***
The building that holds Burger & Lobster/The Botanist/whatever it is nowadays in Bath****
The Station Inn, Ribblehead, Yorkshire*****
The old open air toilets at Ninian Park******

*obviously, mine will only be gents. I haven't yet enjoyed the benefits of gender-fluid toilets.

**Every 2 or 3 years, I have to find my old guide to New York and increasingly almost break my neck fighting my way though to the obscure place that Mrs Bored has put our travel guides.

*** Due to the windows that mean you can still watch the football through while urinating (standing up, I hasten to add).

**** mainly because you get a lovely view of the roof of the restaurant 5 miles away that your wife is still sitting in.

***** No piss-taking here, a genuinely bloody great view of the Ribblehead Viaduct and the Yorkshire Dales.

****** To be honest, this is mainly because they are the source of the story where I was having a pee in them and I looked up to see something spinning towards me. I got promptly struck on the forehead by a stone chucked by some Taff ragamuffin.

[ursus arctos]

Grade I (it already was Grade II)

Which PJ Clarke's? The one on Third Avenue?

They got rid of the ice a few years ago, which is a shame

[Bored Of Education]

That will teach me to play fast and loose with ursus around.

Yes, the one on Third. Is there another one? What ice?

[ursus arctos]

There are three of them here now, plus one in each of Philly and DC

The (monumental) urinals used to be filled with ice at the bottom to the height of three to six inches

[DCI Harry Batt]

Why the title?

[Nocturnal Submission]

I'm intrigued by the thread title, which means nothing to me. Is it slang for "piss or shit"?

The bogs of the Princess Louise in Holborn are quite nice, from distant memory.

[ursus arctos]

So not just me, then

[Bored Of Education]

Ha ha, it's because I am a little bit inebriated and I posted the title of the other poll that I put on Facebook. I am going to leave it now. Perhaps people can vote for that as well.

[Sits]

Awful pics, but I was quite impressed by the well preserved gents’ at Old Parliament House in Canberra:

[Sits]

The other was a restaurant at the top of a Hong Kong skyscraper; can’t remember which one. The urinal wall was all glass (we were assured one-way) and the urinals themselves were glass backed. Visiting the restaurant at night, we effectively peed in full view of the city far below.

[ursus arctos]

I would find that disconcerting.

Here's a contemporary take on the ice

[Sits]

I would find that disconcerting.

I did initially, then forced myself beyond my usual prudishness.

Similar in a way to our 30th anniversary trip when we splashed out on an overwater bungalow (buré?) in the Maldives. The bath area didn't have curtains or blinds, but all were the same and it just seemed OK. Similarly the shower had a glass floor, so in theory someone could swim under your stilts (ooer) for a peek.

[Sits]

[Sits]

Took a long time to fill that bath.

[Sporting]

Some of the older hotels in Spain which still have baths tend to "lose" their plugs in order to dissuade guests from using too much hot water, My partner has a collection of plugs of various sizes which she takes with her when we travel, as she loves a long hot soak.

[Sporting]

Cheese, by the way, for the simple reason that I love cheese and loathe chocolate.

[Benjm]

The other was a restaurant at the top of a Hong Kong skyscraper; can’t remember which one. The urinal wall was all glass (we were assured one-way) and the urinals themselves were glass backed. Visiting the restaurant at night, we effectively peed in full view of the city far below.

I went to the Felix bar/restaurant at the top of the tower of the Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon about twenty years ago and it was a similar set up (photo taken from internet);



On the same trip we went to the Science Museum which had an exhibition about homes of the future in a large open plan hall. This included a number of displays showing different rooms around the house, presented with two walls and two sides left open so visitors could see in and marvel at the shape of things to come. In the bathroom of the future tableau, someone had taken a massive dump in the toilet. Whether they actually mistook it for a public convenience or were caught short and thought that it was better than nothing remains a matter of speculation

[WOM]

My dad used to talk about the khazis in some casino in Branson, Missouri that were like the Taj Mahal. Apparently so many people wandered in to gawk at them that people wouldn't use them for their intended purpose, and they had to put washroom trailers outside in the parking lot. Vegas washrooms are typically impressive in that way.

When i used to write for the private wealth division of a bank, i'd sometimes use their loos and they were mighty fucking impressive. They used to have clients in, so everything was posh. The boardrooms looked like dining rooms in homes, but that's beside the point.


[Apparently the Shoji Tabucchi theatre, and you really should google a pic.]

[Sits]

Benjm to be honest it could easily be that hotel. I remember it as darker and a bit more impressive, but it was a long time ago.

[Balderdasha]

When I used to do a lot more backpacking, me and my friends developed a star rating system for toilets. One star each awarded for the presence of: a lockable door, a Western style toilet that actually flushed, free toilet roll within easy reach, a working sink and soap. These could take you up to a maximum of four stars with stars deducted for obvious hygiene failures like visible shit on the floor or toilet seat. Five stars was reserved for something amazing. I only remember awarding it once, to a toilet in a swanky hotel in Shanghai which had rose petals and posh moisturising creams.

[Sporting]

I got used to long drops with the risk of lurking scorpions attacking one's arse.

[Benjm]

Benjm I remember it as darker and a bit more impressive, but it was a long time ago.

Sits, that just what I was thinking as I tried to find a representative image. It doesn't really lend itself to being photographed because a shot taken far enough back to show the layout of the room loses the effect that you get when standing close up to the urinal with your face a foot away from the big windows. It was much more impressive going in off the back of a couple of expensive beers or cocktails in the, itself very striking, bar too.

Given that the loos have been there since pre-selfie/Instagram days, I wonder whether they would be designed differently now, with quality of photo opportunity a far greater factor in how experiences are rated.

[ursus arctos]

Looks like Tabucci (who I have honestly never heard of) was very active at the Liberace estate sale

[ad hoc]

The question that functions as the title of this thread is akin to "nuclear holocaust or nice day at the beach?"

[elguapo4]

I got used to long drops with the risk of lurking scorpions attacking one's arse.

I'm sure any scorpions down there would be just as happy about what landed on them at the end of a long drop.