No en suite?

Let's hope there was never an outbreak of food poisoning! I expect chamber pots were widely used -pity the poor staff who had to empty them.

Yes you are probably right! It was a routine part of the job of domestic servant.

I stayed at the Belgrave Mews Hotel in Ebury Street in London a couple of years ago - 2 nights for the princely sum of £180 a night. Having arrived by air from Scotland and going out to a 'very posh birthday party' I needed a shower but found our ensuite to be no bigger than an aircraft toilet and filthy with no water coming out of the shower head - I shall try to attach the photo I took of it. There are certainly ensuites and then again ensuites

I hope you complained long and loud!

On a Ramblers' holiday in Cephalonia, my friend and I shared a room with the smallest en suite imaginable. She went down with a tummy bug and remarked that this was the only bathroom where she could sit on the loo and throw up in the sink at the same time. A good recommendation for their brochure, perhaps.

You could do that in my bathroom too!

I've had a couple of bathrooms like that! Very handy in some circumstances.

Last time I had food poisoning (a smoked oyster in NZ. silly me.) i found the motel sink very handily arranged next to the loo. Saved a lot of mess.

Had a bathroom in Paxos once where there was obviously... brace yourself for DH quote "some very nasty anaerobic bacteria growing". The kind of bacteria that produce hydrogen sulphide - rotten egg gas - I think I have got that right - down the drain in the floor. Was kept under control by a bottle of bleach (a whole one) every 2 days. We did complain and they did call some drain people in... to little effect.

Anyone watch the programme about toilets that's just been on BBC4?

No, missed it!

Damn! So did I!

I'm always fascinated by programmes about the history of sanitation [or lack of it].

Bill Bryson wrote a really interesting book about the development of the home, taking it room by room. I always find social history much more interesting than kings and battles!

What was that called? I love Bill Bryson books.

'At home'.