At a time when it feels like the world is going down the toilet, the book we all need may be Toilets of the World. From travel publisher Lonely Planet, it collects images of the planet’s finest, weirdest and most scenic khazis, johns, pissoirs, restrooms and thunderboxes, from the 2nd-century communal latrines for soldiers stationed at Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland to the art deco dunnies built in the 1930s at Palmerston North, New Zealand, after an earthquake devastated several north island cities.
There are a trio of tubas converted into urinals at a pub in Kent, an uncovered porcelain loo on a platform in the Kalahari, a camouflaged cubicle that blends into the jungle of Kiriwina, Papua New Guinea and the Shigeru Ban-designed public conveniences in Shibuya, Tokyo, whose walls transform from transparent to opaque when in use – requiring either desperation or a significant investment of trust from the user.
Some are beautiful and bizarre, like the egg-shaped pods at London’s Sketch restaurant, or the spectacular golden toilet block at the Wat Rong Khun Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand.
Others look barely functional – notably a brick outhouse on Antarctica’s D’Hainaut island, where you’ll need to pick your way through the local population of gentoo penguins to use it.
All remind us that even though we are more divided than ever, there is one thing that unites us all. Even if pondering it makes you think about Nigel Farage.
Toilets of the World is published by Lonely Planet, hardback, £11.99
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