We were at the Barbican earlier in the week for a show and before it began I thought that I would use the loo. Asking where I should go I was directed up two flights of stairs and eventually (after asking a barman where the ladies loos were) found them.
First came 'Mens', second were 'Changing Room for Babies' and third and obviously even further away, was not 'Ladies' but 'Gender Neutral' loos. I asked two nearby staff where the Ladies loos were to be told that there were not any. Running rapidly out of time I entered this set of loos to find around 10-12 cubicles, each with its own loo and sink - so much slower as one has to wait until hands have been washed etc., before a cubicle was freed up. I raced back down to the stalls arriving just as the show commenced.
In theory these 'Gender Neutral' loos should have been fine but in practice it was uncomfortable to be in a queue into a set of loos with men.
Thinking further, if men had wanted to urinate, they presumably would have used the 'Mens' loos with urinals, so the men in this queue needed to have an um, longer stay - which impacted on the poor women in the queue hopping up and down for a quick wee.
This situation (being directed up two flights to only a few loos) was apparently unusual as half of the building had been roped off for a graduation ceremony earlier in the day and that part of the building contained a much larger bank of loos.
I may write to the Barbican asking who on earth decided that it is fine for women waiting to urinate to wait but not men? I love men (well, a few of them) but I am interested to know if the architect was male or female! We need our own spaces.
