If you are offended by lavatorial don't open

Every cloud....

Oh my word ...

Not for me, thank you!

What the Romans did for us . . . . . ?! No thank you!

sociable places to have a chat

It would certainly encourage wearing face masks!
??

I picked up a poster at a Roman fort which showed the legionaries sitting 'doing their stuff' in a row. I kept in in my downstairs loo. Don't know what happened to it when I moved house. There's a row of communal WCs in the wartime air raid shelters in caves which are a tourist attraction in Stockport.

The ancient romans were all dead from malaria by about 30. The communal lavs can't have helped.?

It might speed things up, but I'd be standing outside cross-legged waiting for a quiet moment! No way could I 'go' sitting with a crowd of strangers. I suppose it's a case of what you're used to.

As a child I lived in a village in Derbyshire and a farmhouse very close to my home had an outside earth closet with 3 seats/ round holes in a long wooden well S rubbed plank of wood.
We used to have our school and Sunday school summer treats there and we girls would love to go for a wee together, we would laugh and chat, for a twice a year occasion it was great fun.
I don’t recall anyone getting splinters it was very smooth.

I had a few interesting experiences in France on holiday when I was a teenager as I was quite often mistaken for a boy and was directed to the men's toilets! And I didn't realise their mistake as I used the ones with doors on them until I was coming out of them one day and my Mum saw me and asked me why I'd been in the men's - then it all came out! I always checked after that.

People nowadays would throw plastic bags and all sorts down them and they would quickly get blocked up. I'm sure the Romans wouldn't have done that if it was their only 'mode of convenience'.

Can you imagine how filthy they'd become?

Oh no, that sounds like a nightmare I have every now and then! ?

If desperate, I might manage a "shared" wee, but that would be it...

I'm intrigued by the open loos displayed in Celebrity SAS. How can you 'perform' with a neighbour in the next loo?

MawB. I think you've got it

Anyone remember this one?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6boxoksi3U

I doubt anyone would want to sit (silent 'H'!) next to me.

Alexa, you must be having a laugh!

Alexa The Romans were inventive but hadn't got round to toilet paper. Would you revive their custom of passing round a shared "sponge on a stick" too?

On a tour in China the coach stopped in a service station and we all made a bee line for the loos. In the womens’ area there were several different kinds. Some had 2 seats facing each other behind a half door. Some had three ! Some had just one. There were also those single holes in the ground thingies .
And in another city we stopped where the loos were over a running stream which you could see beneath you as you sat there !
And I have to mention that I don’t like the US habit of peering under the door to see if it’s occupied ? . I’ve noticed this in a few places over there.
And don’t get me started on the French one where you had to negotiate a row of men performing on either side while the attendant shouted out for you to take the ration of loo paper she was waving . This was on a school trip back in the fifties so things may have improved. Hope so.

Oh, no, definitely not . I hate using public toilets anyway, and always make sure to use the toilet before I leave the house. A couple of times recently, though, I've had a wee in the woods

When driving through a France if we should stop at loos which are the tray with a hole in the centre type I find I suddenly no longer need to go!
I once asked my French friend how you used them and she said - well to start with you roll your trouser legs up above your knees!! I cannot remember the rest of the instructions.
I have found that even the most rural of French toilet blocks even with the old fashioned sort now have a disabled toilet and they are usually more conventional!

I really can't imagine sitting in a row doing my business. These days sometimes there is a sign up. "Thieves operate in these toilets" so how would you store your bag safely? If there is a hook on the door I use that but no door, no hook? You wouldn't be able to run after them quickly if your kecks were round your ankles. I can imagine a Benny Hill type scene with a chase accompanied by a saxophonist.