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A cultural examination of the toilet
Apr. 25th, 2007 09:28 amOne of the most striking things about travel is experiencing new and exciting toilets. I'm not exactly a world traveler, so I'm sure there are many more thrills I will experience in the years to come, but I realized the way to tell a regular London restaurant from a posh one: the regular ones have toilet brushes.
When you think about it, it's a really both an issue of personal responsibility and a communal thing. Cleaning up one's own shit is one of the most basic rules of life but, since it is a public setting, it is guaranteed that you are cleaning up not for yourself but for the next person. Only as the fancy places do they employ someone of a lower class to clean up after their patrons.
I will say that this seems to be more necessary in the UK than in the US only because of the design of the toilet bowls which seem to have a higher porcelain:water ratio. Not as drastic as the "viewing stand" design common in Berlin, but more dramatic than ones I come across back home.
Urinal-wise, the pubs seems to still mostly enjoy the comradeship of men pissing together on a weeping wall of feebly dripping water. I think there's a Bukowski poem about this unity of men. I only mistakenly pissed on the step-up area once, There were no witnesses so I think that's pretty good.
Do you know that trough urinals are against health code for San Francisco county now(for new approvals, old ones are grandfathered in. Geez, now there's an image…)? The London communal pub urinals bring back memories of being a child and having to piss elbow to elbow with other, older males. Usually this was at the Oakland Coliseum (for the Warriors or the Seals) or Candlestick Park (for Giants or Niners games) and since all those teams were awful in my youth, the men would be staggeringly drunk and I'd need to fight for my place and watch out for splashback. The troughs were filled not only with smelly, dark yellow piss which collected through the game but also with cigarette butts, beer cups, and change. Once I dropped my oversized Golden State Warriors button in. I was very sad but luckily old enough to know not to go in after it.
On a serious note, the real major cultural difference I noted was the lack of accessibility being part of the culture. I understand that construction dating back 1000 years makes for some different issues than in our young cities but man, stairs everywhere! In the tube, in restaurants, and yes, for bathrooms. I would hate to be in a wheelchair and have to pee in London, seriously.
When you think about it, it's a really both an issue of personal responsibility and a communal thing. Cleaning up one's own shit is one of the most basic rules of life but, since it is a public setting, it is guaranteed that you are cleaning up not for yourself but for the next person. Only as the fancy places do they employ someone of a lower class to clean up after their patrons.
I will say that this seems to be more necessary in the UK than in the US only because of the design of the toilet bowls which seem to have a higher porcelain:water ratio. Not as drastic as the "viewing stand" design common in Berlin, but more dramatic than ones I come across back home.
Urinal-wise, the pubs seems to still mostly enjoy the comradeship of men pissing together on a weeping wall of feebly dripping water. I think there's a Bukowski poem about this unity of men. I only mistakenly pissed on the step-up area once, There were no witnesses so I think that's pretty good.
Do you know that trough urinals are against health code for San Francisco county now(for new approvals, old ones are grandfathered in. Geez, now there's an image…)? The London communal pub urinals bring back memories of being a child and having to piss elbow to elbow with other, older males. Usually this was at the Oakland Coliseum (for the Warriors or the Seals) or Candlestick Park (for Giants or Niners games) and since all those teams were awful in my youth, the men would be staggeringly drunk and I'd need to fight for my place and watch out for splashback. The troughs were filled not only with smelly, dark yellow piss which collected through the game but also with cigarette butts, beer cups, and change. Once I dropped my oversized Golden State Warriors button in. I was very sad but luckily old enough to know not to go in after it.
On a serious note, the real major cultural difference I noted was the lack of accessibility being part of the culture. I understand that construction dating back 1000 years makes for some different issues than in our young cities but man, stairs everywhere! In the tube, in restaurants, and yes, for bathrooms. I would hate to be in a wheelchair and have to pee in London, seriously.
