No, it’s not an homage to Trainspotting… but it isn’t the sort of place you’d visit twice, and it is a great way to generate what would, in slack terms, be called “bad PR”.
Last Saturday, I went out with a friend for some food, then to one of our favourite pubs for a couple of somethings.
Eventually, nature called, so off I trotted the half-mile or so down to the basement and into the gents… where two of the urinals were full to overflowing, one of the sink taps was stuck, the hand-drier didn’t work and the whole place had the look of something that would have Kim & Aggie in fits. Once you realise that the hand-drier doesn’t work, the next time you visit you won’t wash your hands…
The ladies (it was a female friend, I didn’t personally investigate them) had cubicles with either no loo seat or no locks, and the same air of uncleanliness.
Now: you might say that this would be normal for a pub on a Saturday night. I would argue that, with the current bout of winter vomiting sickness doing the rounds that Environmental Health should deploy Flying Squads of inspectors to swoop in unannounced on all our city centre premises, with the power to close down any pub whose facilities were no better than going round into the side alley.
Or am I over-reacting, as usual?