"LONDON (Reuters) - Gleaming toilet bowls, sparkling floors and stylish toilet roll holders have won a London pub the coveted Loo of the Year.

Every imaginable kind of "away from home" toilet was entered into the competition's 18 categories, from hotel lavatories and office loos to toilets on ships, planes and trains.

The top title, announced on Friday, went to the sweet-smelling, state-of-the-art toilets in a J.D. Wetherspoon pub in east London's Docklands area.

Each entrant had an unannounced visit by a Loo of Year Award inspector and was graded between one and five stars.

The awards, which started in 1987, are run by the Cannon Hygiene company, tourism boards in England, Scotland and Wales and the British Toilet Association.

The association campaigns for the restoration of Britain's loos to their former glory, because, as it says on its Web site,"Britain's public toilets were once the envy of the world."

Competition organisers said the awards encouraged the highest possible standards for public toilets.

"Everyone has a shared responsibility to make this happen -- toilet providers, managers, washroom suppliers, contractors, staff, visitors and customers -- all toilet users", they said.

Last year's overall winner of British Loo of the Year was the Oracle Shopping Centre in Reading.

More details on Britain's finest water closets can be found at the Awards' official website at www.loo.co.uk."

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

Answers

NIP TO THE LOO MY DARLING

TOKYO (Reuters) - Weary Japanese climbers will be able to relieve themselves in style after local authorities shelled out nearly $600,000 (420,000 pounds) for two mile-high toilets.

Climbers who scale 1,729 metre Mount Daisen in western Japan may be the best judges of whether the cost was an excessive price for putting the toilets on top of the popular mountain, about 403 miles west of Tokyo.

"We decided to build the toilets after climbers complained that the old one smelled really bad," a Tottori prefectural official said on Thursday.

Up to 1,000 people each day will be able to use the two recently completed and environment-friendly lavatories.

After a sky-high flush, a purification vat and micro-organisms will break down and clean the waste, recycling the water in the process.

"One of the reasons it turned out to be expensive was that we had to use helicopters to transport the supplies," the official said. "But it is a popular mountain in the region, so there has always been the need for better toilets."

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

nowhere for this thread to go but down.....

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

But have they also provided an accessible toilet for disabled people?

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

The toilets at the Scotch Corner services are very nice! Always clean with fresh flowers in there. I think they won a prize once! There is a saucer for your loose change in case you feel like leaving a tip.

I always stop there on my way up the A1 to the Toon.

(useless information I know)

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

,"Britain's public toilets were once the envy of the world."

That's the real reason I want to live there. ;-)

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001

Someone should be flushed with success.

-- Anonymous, November 24, 2001