It has soft lights, gleaming red and blue surfaces and a soothing video projection on the wall showing swirling underwater bubbles. Welcome not to an art hotel but to Europe’s most expensive public toilet.
The super-loo, which opened on Thursday in Berlin, is the last word in chic public architecture and comes with a disabled lift, a unisex baby changing area and 24-hour reception. Entrance is 50 cents.
There are five loos for men and five for women. There is air-conditioning, chill-out music and even golf flags on the urinals to help male customers aim better.
”This is the Mercedes of public conveniences,” said Hans Wall, the German businessman who built the loo. ”I’m very pleased with it. It’s been done with love, intelligence and the best of German design.”
He said the loo had cost him â,¬750 000 to build but said it was worth it. ”It’s an oasis from the outside world. Everything is clean and hygienic. You feel refreshed after using it. The mayor of London should pay us a visit and see how it can be done.”
Customers seemed to like the loo in Breitscheidplatz, one of Berlin’s most popular tourist squares on Thursday. The area is famous for its sex shops and ruined church, left as a monument after British bombers destroyed it in the war. ”This place used to be full of drug addicts. It was very dark. I didn’t fancy using it much. I was worried about being robbed,” Wolfgang Gellesch (62) who works for a pension fund, said.
”Now the facilities are excellent. It’s a symbol of the new Germany.” The underground loo has opened just weeks before Germany hosts the World Cup, with tens of thousands of visitors expected in the capital.
The final is being played a short train ride away from the loo, which is next to Zoologischer Garten station.
Berlin’s Senate has thanked Wall for his initiative by offering him free advertising space. – Guardian Unlimited Â