h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Growing up in the 70s and 80s around the north and east coast of England, i remember lots of Gents Public toilets. Now that councils are strapped for cash, and there are other places for politicians to pick up a bit of rough trade, there seem to be far fewer public toilets in general these days.

But one type of toilet - or gents toilet - seems to have disappeared altogether; the open air pissoir. The sign 'gents' on the public side of the wall, and an ally like opening,revealed the other side of the wall to piss against and a cut drain into the corner. No w/c, no sink, no tap, no door, no roof.

How many of these are still in operation? There are only a couple that i can think of (both in Lincoln). Does anyone know of any more?

I can't recall any recently, but this does describe the facilities at a few non-league football grounds.

Have you seen Reading's high-tech equivalent, the Urilift?

<BB<

I haven't seen one of those for years - even at non-league football grounds.

And the Urilift looks a little worrisome. What's holding it up? Is it floating?

PP.

I don't think those are part of the American experience at all, unless you happen to be at a state park. And maybe not even then. Of course, bears st in the woods, a practice not lost on humans.

...and what is it floating in?

Here's a 'worst toilets in non-league football' discussion from a fans' forum in 2010:

http://www.nonleaguematters.co.uk/forum/gforum.cgi?post=257195;guest=22547357

Brockville was the old home of Falkirk FC, wooden stands etc. A story I heard was Rangers were playing there in the 70s in an important match so it was a sell-out. In those days there weren't very many ladies facilities in Scottish football and Brockville was no different. The "Gents" was a long metal trough in a room with wooden floorboards. The "Ladies" was actually a staff WC directly underneath the "Gents" which was used by cleaners on non match days. With such a large crowd the small "Gents" was soon overloaded with people having to splash through puddles on the way to the trough. Thankfully the puddles never got too deep as they quickly seeped through the gaps in the 100 year old floorboards ... onto the women using the WC below.

" the puddles never got too deep as they quickly seeped through the gaps in the 100 year old floorboards ... onto the women using the WC below" [swl]

One of the most rudimentary toilets I ever vsited was at a cave tourist attraction in Derbyshire. When we decended to admire the rock formations, there was a constant dripping of water from the roofs of the caverns. The guide jokingly explained that there was no engineered drainage from the toilets, it disappeared into a hole in the ground, then took 300 years to emerge in the caverns, by which time it was pure water.

What worries me is the expression "in operation" - Post 1. From the description, they don't seem to have any moving parts to operate at all.

I went to a fairly notable music venue in Austin, TX in the late 80's called Liberty Lunch. It was a converted mechanic's shop. When the call to nature called, I saw the sign for the Gents and walked through it.

I then found my self standing outside!

I thought, "Surely, they don't expect me to just pee on the wall, do they?"

A few brief moments passed before I noticed an extension to the building. It was the original, outside entrance men's "room" from the days when it was still a garage.

Here's a low-tech version of the urilift http://i1.chesterchronicle.co.uk/incoming/article5109103.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/image-9-for-has-chester-gone-potty-gallery-306628508.jpg

Careful the feminists will want one

If you want to splash your boots alfresco, its not much better than the pub wall!

No, no moving parts to operate. But then there used to be a couple more in Lincoln that the closed for 'problems with drainage' and 'missuse'.

There's a photo of one of the ones that still open here:
http://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/le-pissoir-lincoln-s-worst-toilet-plans-improve/story-29391691-detail/story.html

There used to be one of these by the Junction pub and outside the market in Harborne Birmingham until really quite recently - sadly they've recently bulldozed the market and built something else so its' gone. I stumbled across it accidentally one day and thought it was rather handy to be honest. Never seen another and not seen once since...

... except these things seemed to be ubiquitous in France and actually rather more public. Just a triangular thing rather reminiscent of 1980s style open phone booths around a central pole with minimal shelter from the public gaze. Gard-de-Nord has one just behind where the Eurostar platform is and they were everywhere along the route I cycled last year from Paris to Brest and back.
The continentals have always been rather less perturbed by such things I guess.

there are Pissoirs here in Gerrmany, some more private than others.

There are one or two outside the Borussia Park - but the Gladbach male fans still find it necessary to get off the shuttle busses and pee against the trees in a bit of scrubland next to it.
Even though since the beginning of this season there has been a beer garden with toilets right next to the main entrance at the home end (and - wonder of wonders) there are more than double the number of stalls in the women's toilet than in the men's. (I asked a man to count. I have - inside the stadium - used the men's when i've been desperate and the queue for the ladies is really long - there are equal number of stalls for men and women inside. But generally the queue for women is much much longer - but that's a whole other rant for the Petty Hates thread)

Oh, idiots will go anywhere - my old local pub you'd see people relieving themselves in the flower bed outside when there was a perfectly serviceable (and sheltered and warm) toilet about 5 yards away

I got asked if I was a policeman once when one of them clearly spotted the look of contempt on my face as I was confronted with this while waiting outside for my wife.

there seems to be a lot fewer public toilets, full stop thesedays.... No wonder cottaging isn't what it once was.... err... so I've been told anyhow

I used to occasionaly go to a pub that didn't have a toilet. - well it did. but...-

you had to walk out the back of the pub, carefly walk round a derolict empty swimming pool; into the public park (no lighting as its night), and find the anchient single cubicle in the park to use.... - how we never fell into the deralict swimming pool I've no idea... espeically when the area round it was often covered in fallen leaves from the trees etc...