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Sunday, 12 December 2010

St Mary Bishophill: Ecclesiastical Hygiene

We have been informed that it is quite common, at Christmastime, for one's thoughts to turn to holy things. A greater tolerance of one's fellow men, real or professed, is, we are assured, widespread. Since it's Sunday, and Christmas is approaching, we thought it appropriate to do a review of a church toilet. We happened to be in St Mary Bishophill Junior, incidentally the oldest church building in York, and had the pleasure of using the facilities there.

A heroic effort by the toilet roll holder to cover the bog roll, but unfortunately one which we can't recognise

The clean and roomy toilet is fully disability-adapted, with an easy-to-use flush and tap, although there is, alas, no hot water, despite a whizzy-looking water heater. The bin is hygienically covered. The toilet roll holder tries to cover the toilet roll, but despite heroic efforts, fails. At least the loo roll is plain white and without pretensions.

Rather lacking in divine fire

Lovely clean towels
Oh, what could have been!
A mixer tap - if only it had some hot water to mix!
The soap is the lovely Ecover soap, which smells divinely of lavender. There is a blessed absence of airdryers; instead, towels hang from the door. Normally we would deduct points for this practice, being unhygienic and impractical in a public toilet, but we happened to visit this church several days in a row for non-blog-related reasons, and noticed that the towels were changed every day.

The fan really sucks, in a good way

A fan sucks out damp air and provides noise cover. We don't remember seeing a coat-hook, but the door opens outwards, which makes it easier to exit without touching the door handle; we were tempted to award an extra half point for this, but refrained, as we don't believe in special treatment for churches.

A sight to cheer a cynical toilet reviewer: ecological cleaner, back-up soap, and sanitiser


Points: 6/15

St Mary Bishophill Junior
25 Trinity Lane, York YO1 6BY

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