Sunday, April 20, 2008

How Much Would You Pay If You REALLY Had to Go?





One of the downsides of living in New York is the scarcity of public bathrooms. It's so bad that there are now entire websites devoted to the locations of restrooms in Manhattan. (I recommend bookmarking this page if you're planning a trip here.) And when the city's first pay toilet opened last year, it was cause for celebration.

But it seems the situation in London might be even worse. The city can no longer afford to keep its bathrooms clean, so they've started selling them to people who convert them into nightclubs or (believe it or not) apartments. Of course it wasn't long before one entrepreneur found a way to make a fortune off London's bladder-busting misery.

In December, business woman Elaine Gennard-Levy opened her own ladies' room on busy Oxford Street. It cost about 2.5 million dollars to build, and if you'd like to make use of the facilities, you'll need to hand over TEN DOLLARS. You can check out pictures of the luxury loo here. It's pretty swanky, but for ten dollars, I'd want a gold-plated toilet and the Mona Lisa smiling down at me.

21 comments:

E.J.R. said...

hay that picture is realy cool, is it glass on the floor or is someone really falling. . . it looks very neat.

Anonymous said...

Omg! At first when I read $10 I thought it said $10,000 for some reason. I couldn't believe it! But when I reread it it made more sense.

Anyway, that's freaky. London was in need of restrooms that badly? Oh,and the picture is AWESOME!

~Skyla

Kitty said...

Eeek! I'm going to NY today!!! DX

Anonymous said...

Ten dollars for a trip to the bathroom is stupid but personally, I hate public bathrooms. There's only one worse form of toilet and I think you all know what that is...

Invisible Turtle said...

Ha ha. Ten dollars won't get you anything if you're in LONDON, so I'd be happy to pay.

International Mastermind said...

Wow...

That lady IS pretty smart, though. Make use of the public problems. :D

E-star said...

That so terrebly cool! I love it! I would love to have a bathroom like thet!!

International Mastermind said...

Oh my gosh this is the best video ever! I watv=ch it all the time.
Can't do th link cause my computer's whacked, but go to Youtube, search "blue man group earth to america" and watch the video with the three squares. IT ROCKS! I <3 Blue Men.

Sekrit7 said...

That is a crazt cool bathroom, but 10 bucks??? It's cheaper to buy something at Jamba Juice and use their restroom! (Jamba Juice is a completly overpriceed juice stor, 5 bucks for 1 smoothie-juice thing. AND they will not let you use their restroom without but=ying something, they'll kick you out of the store. (personal experience... you don't want to know)

Invisible Turtle said...

Thank you so much! I had to do a 'speculative writing' essay (write a story on a picture) and I was having a hard time finding an interesting one. But I used this picture, I just have to hope it's not 'inappropriate' due to the bathroom and whatnot.

ss chick said...

now ananka, thats ten $ here, how many pounds would that be? i have a freinbd (ok, pen pal actually) who visits NY alot, so I'll have to tell her to check out this blog. ten dollars is bogus. especially if it's just so you can pee. totally bogus. but a smart way to make some money. but not cool for lower lass londoners. sigh... society today...

Thumb Biter said...

Haha, I like the website listing the public bathrooms in NY.
Oh, and you know how (I think) in your second book you mentioned that you shouldn't dry a hamster in the microwave?... today my friend told me that her sister's friend dropped her poor hamster in water, and then MICROWAVED HIM. Humans are extremely stupid sometimes.

Kirsten Miller said...

Jin Ai: Did it live? I've found that hamsters are quite resilient. (Don't ask.)

Thumb Biter said...

LOL! I'm not sure, but I hope so! Haha.

Elizabeth said...

That picture is cool. I had a dream like that once (except it wasn't the bathroom without the floor). Ten bucks!? Yikes.

Kitty said...

Jin Ai, you're friend coulda baked the hamster. XD Anyway, ANANKA!! YOU WERE RIGHT!! The lines for the bathrooms are UNBELIEVABLY LONG!! And you had to pay alot for one bathroom trip! (So everyone in my family avoided drinking water lol) The trip to New York was fun tho (we bought ALOT of stuff from Chinatown!), I also visited Manhattan (BWHAHAHAHA! I WILL STALK YOU ANANKA!!! XDD). I also saw two people having a fight in Burger King. (okay... that was random...)

Anonymous said...

10 dollars is 5.001 british pounds!
~Spiffy

Hazel said...

In Germany, almost all the bathrooms cost 50 cents (approx 75 cents American), with a drop-the-money-in-the-slot-turnstile! There are also some with a sigh telling you to leave a tip of max 30 (45) cents, and at those places it would be really rude not to, especially with the guy hanging around grinning at you...and telling you to push harder when the stall door gets suck! *blush*

But $10!!!!

Anonymous said...

WHAT THE HECK??? Ten dollars to go to the bathroom??? That woman is cheap! Not to mention pathetic...

Mai Selffe said...

weird! Oh and Skyla, you don't want to experience paki-toilets!

Marinovska said...

jeez, i would hate to live in london!