Lost Society

697 Wandsworth Road, London, SW8 3JF
Website

So we haven’t posted for a while – no it wasn’t because we hadn’t been out on various towns, obviously we have. It wasn’t because we couldn’t find anywhere worthy of a review, obviously we did. It’s because we couldn’t bothered. And so on to the latest loo review….

To succeed a venue has to have it’s finger on the latest style button – that’s obvious. Better still if it’s a bit ahead of the curve. Even better if the toilets reflect this too.

Welcome to Lost Society. No honestly. We’re not going to follow that with aa cheesy joke about how “You’re welcome to it” (a ha, a ha ha)…. We’ll save that for a review of some other convenience when we’re feeling more bitchy.

Lost Society is lovely and fin de siecle, it’s flowery and decadent, it’s all gloomy and shiny and baroque and flock wallpaper-ish. The toilets reflect that by being all cut glass heart mirrors and lush colours. Who can fail to feel good about a venue which uses mirrors that tell you that you’re loveable? The colours are vibrant and there is plenty of room to feel right at home in them. Levels of cleanliness were high and we were eating there so we were up and down the stairs all night to use the WCs – the standards were maintained throughout.

One feature of the toilets is that the doors to the ladies and mens are open – so you can see the urinals, gloriously placed against the deep red wall of the men’s toilets. To some that might be a reason to mark it down, but not for us, we’re just those kind of gals. And remarkably there were no nasty smells emanating! Even better.

So what is our verdict? Despite a genuine hope that we would be able to review the toilets by telling you that “Lost Society can get lost!” we have to instead use the following phrase:-

“Lose yourself in Lost Society”

8/10

The Newman Arms

 23 Rathbone St, London, W1T 1NQ  

It’s so tiny – but so clean. The Newman Arms is a lovely old pub just behind Tottenham Court Road. It’s a bit white, but then so is Fitzrovia darling, which is the official area of London you are in when you are drinking in the road outside the pub.

The toilet is also tiny but clean. The door is right next to the end of the bar – which is convenient – but launches you straight into the toilet cubicle, complete with rather two steps you have to go up in order to reach the bog itself – which is not. In fact it’s rather confusing and possibly downright dangerous if one was any more pissed than we were, which was not very.

As for the surroundings, well all the requisites were there including mirror, paper, white tiles, black and white convenience etc. But because of the confusion about how to lock the toilet door (on which step do you reach back down behind yourself to slip across the measly lock without falling drunkenly back out into the bar or braining yourself on the side posts of the door) the damage was already done.

Really the best thing about the place is that it’s located in Fitzrovia and the fact that you seem to be able to get a drink whenever you want. Minus points are collected by the toilet’s bizarre construction and the odd drainy smell, which the regulars seem to actually find comforting (we heard them discussing it, no word of a lie) . Perhaps all the ad men that frequent it see the smell of effluent as providing that ”home from home” feel…

4/10 – needs more room for manouvre