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Post by showgirl on Aug 24, 2016 3:20:57 GMT
The toilets at the top of the Old Vic are fine. Plentiful, clean, and spacious, just up a lot of stairs. The ones in the basement are cramped and horrible and should be avoided. Exactly. I was fine when dashing from my aisle seat at Groundhog Day, but not having been there since seeing Pilgrim (anyone recall that?) years ago, was amazed to find out just how many flights of stairs I had to rush up to reach the ladies. And then descending afterwards, of course, all the staircases and landings were cluttered with others just loitering or taking their time - shockingly poor planning to create this unnecessary crossover.
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Post by meister on Aug 24, 2016 9:18:14 GMT
I have recently found the upgraded toilets at the local theatre to be consistently more entertaining than what's on stage.
As part of the multi million pound refurb at Chichester Festival Theatre they have installed motion (hand, not any other type of motion!!) activated paper towel dispensers.
The problem is that until a hand is waved underneath it just looks like a metal box on the wall. Cue patrons looking at said box, mumbling something along the lines of "looks empty" and wandering off wiping hands on trousers. Nice!!
Alternatively, if a hand is waved under the metal box, a towel is dispensed with such force it scares the old guys to death and they can't work out what just happened!!!! Hours of fun! And probably a triumph of design over functionality!!
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Post by The Matthew on Aug 24, 2016 10:43:21 GMT
I hate devices that have had so much design done on them that they're a mystery to anyone not in on the secret. It's usually taps. Some taps have buttons and some have levers and some have turny things, and those are just grand. And then there are the taps that have none of those. There they sit, bright and inviting, drawing you in with the promise of refreshing cleanliness, so you stand there experimentally pressing various bits and after a while it dawns on you that you're not going to get any part of the tap to move without a hefty blow from a hammer, so you start trying to work out if part of it is touch-sensitive and you brush your fingers caressingly across the tap, and still nothing happens, so you wave your hands around and below the tap in the fading hope that perhaps there's some kind of proximity sensor, while the people queueing behind you are wondering why you seem to be performing some sort of ritual dance in front of the sink. And finally you're rewarded with a fleeting blast of wet and you think Yes, that was it, but in your desperation you were moving too fast and now you can't find the sweet spot again and you can feel the blush spreading from your face to consume your entire body and see it reflected in the shiny chrome of the uncooperative tap as it sits there mocking you with its intransigent dryness. Defeated, you move to the towel dispenser and vainly try to wipe the drying liquid soap from your hands, and as you do you hear a gush of water as the person behind you succeeds in moments where you failed. As you leave you wipe the tears of despair from your eyes, your confidence destroyed by the design that was supposed to make things easy.
Aargh! Soapy eyes! Soapy eyes! Soapy eyes!
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Post by lynette on Aug 24, 2016 12:47:48 GMT
I hope you all know how blissful it is for me to have this discussion on the board.
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Aug 24, 2016 13:17:13 GMT
The problem is that until a hand is waved underneath it just looks like a metal box on the wall. Cue patrons looking at said box, mumbling something along the lines of "looks empty" and wandering off wiping hands on trousers. Nice!! Bet they're saving a fortune in paper supplies. Genius.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2016 13:21:27 GMT
Oh dear, is the Old Vic that bad? I haven't been there for a while so don't remember what the loos are like. I'm there on Saturday. At least I'm sitting on an aisle so I guess I'd better be prepared to make a speedy exit in the interval. Yes, Dawnstar, best advised to make the loos your first port of call at the interval, and put on a burst of speed to get there. My friend and I went up two floors from the dress circle to use the upstairs ladies', immediately as the interval started. About ten people ahead queuing when we got there. When we left a few minutes later...queue was snaking all the way down the stairs. (I should add - this was for Groundhog Day, so it was recent and probably reflects the number of seats they're selling for this too.)
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Post by lynette on Aug 24, 2016 17:37:51 GMT
Old Vic notorious. Downstairs you if you are female or like to use ladies' loo, have to stand there more or less in the bar while the fellas squeeze past you and come about again in a trice while you are still standing there. They upgraded the actual loos a bit ago but did nothing about the access and the number. I haven't been recently. I believe there is a new cafe down there. Going soon to GR Day and will partake of the facilities in restaurant where we are eating before the show.
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Post by Dawnstar on Aug 24, 2016 20:47:04 GMT
Yes, Dawnstar, best advised to make the loos your first port of call at the interval, and put on a burst of speed to get there. My friend and I went up two floors from the dress circle to use the upstairs ladies', immediately as the interval started. About ten people ahead queuing when we got there. When we left a few minutes later...queue was snaking all the way down the stairs. (I should add - this was for Groundhog Day, so it was recent and probably reflects the number of seats they're selling for this too.) I'm in the stalls so I'll have to be very speedy! More generally, if I had the money I'd pay the Lyric to re-do their stalls ladies' loos. It's quite a big room but the cubicles are so tiny you can barely get into them. Goodness knows how larger ladies manage. If they extended the cubicles by a foot there would still be plenty of wash basin & queuing space and we wouldn't have to perform contortions to get in and out of them.
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Post by Phantom of London on Aug 24, 2016 23:41:43 GMT
Obviously we are hearing from the ladies here who hate queuing for the ladies' toilets, all the more as men seem to get fast tracked.
So how would people feel if thee was no ladies and no gents, but instead one big unisex toilet, with all cubicles and each cubicle had its own wash facilities and toilet wipe down?
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Post by d'James on Aug 25, 2016 0:14:30 GMT
Toilet cubicles with their own wash facilities are wrong! They keep the cubicles occupied longer than they should be.
I think Unisex toilets are the way forward although I've worked with people who are completely anti them.
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Post by The Matthew on Aug 25, 2016 4:18:42 GMT
Toilet cubicles with their own wash facilities are wrong! They keep the cubicles occupied longer than they should be. Assuming that all you use them for is washing your hands then the difference should be minimal, and it prevents congestion as people try to join a second queue. I've encountered a number of facilities where it feels as though the majority of the time is spent jostling around and squeezing past other people while trying not to be pushed into a urinal. It would be easier to be able to just leave. I'm in favour of unisex toilets. They work well enough on trains; my local train company experimented with separate facilities but it wasn't popular and they cancelled it after a while. Also, while women may complain about queues the men frequently get something like one cubicle per level, and if it's out of order or occupied by someone who's in no hurry then you're out of luck. But mostly I'm in favour of more toilets. Nearly everywhere seems to provide no more than the minimum required by law.
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Post by d'James on Aug 25, 2016 4:22:39 GMT
Nope. Some people take forever washing their hands. The soap and water should never be within the cubicle.
The lack of cubicles for men is basically why I started this thread. Nearly killing myself on the stairs of the Adelphi is why I haven't returned to see Kinky Boots.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2016 7:27:22 GMT
If the difference between a quick wee and a quick wee with a hand wash is minimal, then may I suggest you are not washing your hands as thoroughly as someone who is (presumably) in a big city full of people probably should. I'm not saying everyone has to do hospital washing, but in the time it takes to damp your hands, apply soap, lather it up, rinse it off, and maybe dry them too, someone else could have had a quick wee and the queue would be moving that bit faster. I like cubicles with included sinks (useful for not only cleaning the clothes you have on in an emergency, but also if you are a lady who uses less traditional but more eco-friendly sanitary equipment), but they definitely shouldn't be the norm.
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Post by The Matthew on Aug 25, 2016 7:52:48 GMT
The point I'm trying to make is that with washing facilities in the cubicle you can empty your various bits, wash and get out of everyone else's way, but with separate facilities you have to stay in the same crowded space and try to form a second queue that inevitably conflicts with the queue to get to the cubicles. It's not an issue in places where there's plenty of room to move around freely, but in the sort of crowded places we're discussing here I wouldn't be at all surprised if the delay caused by people trying to squeeze past each other on their way from entrance to cubicle to basin to working soap dispenser to basin to dryer to exit doesn't turn out to be similar to the time spent washing their hands. There's far more that needs to be taken into account than a simple "time spent in cubicle".
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2016 8:29:33 GMT
As a frequent user of ladies toilets in theatre myself, I believe a LOT of the chaos could be solved if certain of my fellow ladies could be reminded that they really DON'T need to comb their hair and reapply their mascara before heading back into a dark theatre where no one will be looking at them for at least another hour.
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Post by showgirl on Aug 25, 2016 8:38:21 GMT
Indeed - or at least have a separate area for the incurable preeners; however, lack of space is the overall issue, so if there was room for that, too, we wouldn't be having this discussion.
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Post by SamB (was badoerfan) on Aug 25, 2016 11:29:35 GMT
If the difference between a quick wee and a quick wee with a hand wash is minimal, then may I suggest you are not washing your hands as thoroughly as someone who is (presumably) in a big city full of people probably should. I'm not saying everyone has to do hospital washing, but in the time it takes to damp your hands, apply soap, lather it up, rinse it off, and maybe dry them too, someone else could have had a quick wee and the queue would be moving that bit faster. I like cubicles with included sinks (useful for not only cleaning the clothes you have on in an emergency, but also if you are a lady who uses less traditional but more eco-friendly sanitary equipment), but they definitely shouldn't be the norm. The bit that seems to take the time is often the drying using the hand-dryer. The new mens loos at Gatwick has separate 'cubicles' for urinals (they're not really cubicles as they don't have a door, but, like, an alcove) where there's a urinal, with a sink and dryer next to it. It's very frustrating, as you end up having to wait to go for a wee while someone is stood next to the urinal washing their hands and drying them.
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Post by lynette on Aug 25, 2016 11:42:44 GMT
Then we have the gals, bless em, who hog the basins redoing their makeup so you can't get to the sink and the wet floor you can't put yr bag down on. Hey ho.
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Post by Phantom of London on Aug 25, 2016 11:54:49 GMT
Simply don't supply mirrors in the toilet, no real use for them.
A cubicled area with its own wash area, will be great, especially with a toilet like the Arcloa (pictured earlier), where the hand wash waste water goes into the next toilet flush, so a good green option here, also this stops the toilet from slowly filling up and if you cannot flush as the cistern is slow, then you just turn the tap on.
Has anyone been to the new toilets in the Understudy at the National? These are cubicled toilets with there own wash facility, even though the left hand side is gents and right hand side is ladies, so not strictly unisex, but if I was queuing and the opposite sex toilet was available I be in there like a shot!!! Also gender assigned toilets make it difficult for the transexual community.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2016 13:06:08 GMT
Sorry but I absolutely hate unisex toilets. I'm not claiming women are perfect, but a toilet that a man has been in is just vile...
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Post by mallardo on Aug 25, 2016 13:47:24 GMT
Sorry but I absolutely hate unisex toilets. I'm not claiming women are perfect, but a toilet that a man has been in is just vile...
I was going to resent that but it struck me that I probably agree.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2016 13:55:20 GMT
we (don't) aim to please... Well, quite. Without getting graphic, it's just easier to make less mess sitting down. And also you're more aware of how unpleasant a mess is the more physical contact you have with the apparatus; standing and pointing means you're not coming skin to skin with offerings from a previous occupant.
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Post by Phantom of London on Aug 25, 2016 14:35:44 GMT
we (don't) aim to please... Ha Perhaps as men doing a number 1 should 'aim to please' then Abby wouldn't be so disappointed.
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Post by The Matthew on Aug 26, 2016 17:07:10 GMT
Only tenuously connected with this thread, but I note this story of a man who apparently climbed down into a septic tank to retrieve a friend's dropped phone. What struck me was the following sentence: "To make matters worse, Mr Berntsen Larsen quickly threw up after entering the tank, which was standing room only." Doesn't the phrase "standing room only" suggest that the tank was packed full of people, such that there was no room to sit down? What do they do in Norway? (I found it weird enough that someone would drop their phone into a tank that's emptied once a season and want the phone back, because in that situation I'd write it off as a sacrifice to the toilet gods. But the guy was in a septic tank, and they think that what makes it really bad is that he wasn't able to sit down?)
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Post by lynette on Aug 26, 2016 17:37:14 GMT
Maybe it's the translation. ( she offered hopefully)
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Post by Phantom of London on Aug 28, 2016 0:47:31 GMT
Here is a funny but embarrassing story for me. When I was in Liverpool last year - I was at the Royal Court theatre, however they were going through a multi million pound refurbishment and on the circle level at the interval - you come across a ladies toilets and next door another ladies toilet, so at the interval the baffled men piled into the second ladies toilets. Which is fine but my needs were more substantial, so I went into a cubicle, to lay one out, in the meantime a Duty Manager came in and herded all the men out, except she forgot the cubicle, where one male remained. The toilet now filled up with women and - I need to make an exit. So I left red faced, I have to say the Liverpool women have a great sense of humour. However when I trapped in that cubicle, I did witnessed some great conversations.
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Post by kathryn on Aug 28, 2016 12:14:08 GMT
I still love the Barbican "foot pedal operated" taps. The symbol on the spigot is totally mystifying, and the looks on faces until someone who knows does the required action to be copied is wonderful. God, I hate those! They catch me out every time. It doesn't help that some taps have them and others don't.
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Post by kathryn on Aug 28, 2016 12:20:31 GMT
I'm in the stalls so I'll have to be very speedy! Isn't there a secret disabled loo near the fire exit in the front stalls at the Old Vic? Hardly anyone knows about it, so there's rarely a queue, and particularly handy if you struggle with stairs.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2016 12:36:31 GMT
There is. My mum has a disability so if I'm with her, we use that one. You have to watch out for the door from the stalls flying open if there's a bit of a queue, though. Bit of an accident waiting to happen, I always think! But I haven't been that way for ages so they may have improved it.
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Post by Dawnstar on Aug 28, 2016 19:08:53 GMT
Thanks for the previous advice on the Old Vic. I raced up the 3 floors at the interval yesterday & got there when the queue was only 4 or 5 people long. When I exited it was across the lobby & down the stairs to the next floor!
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