Londoners Squirm as Public Toilets Grow Scarce; New Loo Is $10

[133724]

Feb. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Elaine Gennard-Levy spent 20 minutes searching for a bathroom while shopping on London's Oxford Street. She decided it would be easier to build her own.

``I said to my husband, there must be a better way,'' Gennard-Levy said. ``The loos are awful in this country.''

In December, she opened a luxury ladies' room on Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping area. Use of the toilet and powder room at the facility costs 5 pounds ($10).

The facility, called WC1, is helping to fill the gap left by a decline in public bathrooms in London. The number of toilets dropped 40 percent from 2000 to 2005, leaving 415 to serve a population of 7.5 million, government figures show. That's not including the 28 million people who visit the U.K. capital each year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=akPWXasbGxbo&refer=exclusive

oH SHIT.....

[lligrd]

1. $10.00 ToChit???

You gotta be kidding?

[rodeodance]

2. oh well, yah gotta gok, yah gotta go!

[Dover]

4. Privatizing public services.

I reacted the same way when I discovered bottled water while in Europe many years back. And before I knew it, the trend had hit the U.S. as well. The big investors are creating the market for water.

[lligrd]

7. Ugh, So Did I And Yet I Here I Am Paying For It

Mainly cause i don't like sweetened drinks and now cause I don't trust the gevernment to supply safe water. But that last part was probably part of No-heart Cheney's plan wasn't it?

[bicentennial_baby]

15. Except in Europe the water

is actually good, full of minerals. At least in France. :)

[133724]

10. U owe me a keyboard!!!!

[lligrd]

12. Sending It ASAP

Please be forewarned that the OC keys are permanently entwined.

[Dover]

3. Why the decline in public toilets? Kinda like the trend to bottle/sell water

Once they discover that people will actually PAY to use these facilities, that will be the end of free public toilets. Taking privatization of PUBLIC services to the extreme once again.

[lligrd]

5. Yep, And Instead Of The Government Questioning Why

people are paying for what they perceive as clean water or sanitary toilets they will us pretend this is a personal choice. Then they will slowly decide that clean water and public toilets are not priorities and both will disappear. And we will all be forced to pay for clean water and toilets. Isn't Capitalism great?

[cgrindley]

6. If you've ever experienced

the joys of using a public restroom in any major British city--say at one of the train stations--then you will have had one of three experiences... all three take place in an unspeakably filthy space:

a) attempting to do your business surrounded by vomit from last night's drunken louts (for some reason they also vomit on all available benches, and in the few remaining red phone booths);

b) attempting to do your business while others "cottage";

c) attempting to do your business while others shoot up;

What London needs is bathroom bobbies. I lived there for 4 years. And on Oxford Street, I'd be willing to pay ten pounds. The typical pub toilet with its stinking tin trough is a thousand times worse.

[133724]

11. Any one got startup money????n/t

[Porcupine]

13. British concepts of personal hygiene.....

are reportedly below the standards of your average dairy. It's a wonder they can't manage to get this mess cleaned up; all it requires is a regular hosing.

Anyone for a real English cheddar?

[Connonym]

8. It's hardly a new concept

Pay toilets have already been around for a long time.

[liberal renegade]

9. greyhound bus stations

comes to mind...

[Zookeeper]

14. Odd...

I just mentioned to my kids that I remember pay toliets in downtown Detroit's stately old J.L. Hudson's department store (no longer standing, of course).

If I remember correctly, the stalls had a dime coin mechanism. There were two free stalls. I always ponied up a dime for the pay toliets, but the whole restroom was so clean that I seriously doubt that there was a difference between the free and pay stalls.

It certainly was vastly preferable to living in S.F., where trying to find a restroom was a nightmare (and worse when one was found). I just don't remember many "public" restrooms there, everyone just barged into restaurants, bars or coffee shops. And those were usually dirty, unisex and without door locks.

$10.00 seems quite excessive, though. (Don't have a second cup of coffee or tea.)