When she was young my sister’s first port of call in any restaurant was the toilets. If they didn’t pass her checklist of fundamental requirements we all had to leave. I haven’t asked her if she still maintains this regime almost thirty five years on but every time I have to use a public loo I think of her – an unfortunate association, I know.
If the ‘Ladies’ are bad, the ‘Gents’ are worse. I can’t be the only one who dreads going into the cubicle. Increasingly it seems that public toilets are being used for target practice by people who have absolutely no sense of direction. A wet seat is the inevitable result.
I was therefore delighted to see this piece of design in a toilet in Rome’s Fiumicino airport. You may not be able to stop the poor behaviour of a few people but good design can stop it spoiling the comfort of the majority.
All the seat lids are weighted so that as soon as there is no-one sitting on them they lift up. Percy is only ever pointing at the porcelain.
