Monday 8 April 2013

Worcester Cathedral: Revisiting Sacred Ground

Alert readers will remember us mentioning the toilet-twinned toilet of Worcester Cathedral on a previous occasion. Well, count yourselves lucky - Tudor Friend has delivered on the promise to contribute more pictures! Tudor Friend says:
As promised, here is the Cathedral bog in all of its glory!
Getting to them is very strange, because you step out of the obviously very medieval cathedral into a hallway that the 1990s threw up - it actually feels sort of like you're going down the hall to a spa, all frosted glass and wood panelling, and it's a bit hard to figure out when you're actually going to find the ladies' (or gents'). (Not that I'm entirely complaining about leaving the middle ages - their toilets are one thing to which even my reenacting-loving soul does not aspire. On which note - god, I really need to give up on the parentheticals - I also have to send you photos/info from Beaumaris Castle, which is basically a castle entirely made up of toilets.)
The bathroom itself is pretty normal. Absolutely nothing fancy... the most memorable thing is that, in addition to a skylight there are vertical transom windows that were cracked open, I'm sure for ventilation, the problem being that this spring is bloody cold and the bathroom, usually the one surely warm place in a cathedral, was draughty and cold. At least they have a nice Dyson airblade hand-drier (I do like those things!), so one does not immediately fetch up with chilblains (at least not on one's hands... no air driers for one's bum...).

Whoosh, this looks perfectly respectable! We love the hygienically covered bog-roll holder,
although the disability-hostile and non-water-saving flush handle
sends shivers down our spine.

The worst kind of heresy: A spanking new bathroom with non-integrated taps!
Hygeia sinks to the ground, wringing her hands and weeping openly.
(Get sane and balanced information on the importance of mixer taps
for maintaining hand hygiene here, here and/or here.)

As we believe we have mentioned more than once, we give thanks every day for not having to encounter medieval plumbing! We thank Tudor Friend for this entertaining and informative peek at the Worcester Cathedral toilets, which are so laudably linked to Hygeia-approved sanitation projects via Toilet Twinning, and look forward to future contributions!

Related Reading
Handwashing Extravaganza
Everything you Always Wanted to Know about Toilet-Roll Holders (But Were Afraid to Ask)
A Semi-Intellectual Treat
Toilet-Twinning - Worcester Cathedral
Medieval Plumbing

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