Once upon a time in the Philharmonic Dining Rooms, a glorious gin palace in Liverpool, I was using the grade-II listed Purbeck marble gents stalls. A bunch of American tourists, mostly women, some with camcorders, came in and started looking around. It was all I could do not to turn around and give them a traditional greeting.

So when I stumbled upon Urinal.net I had an idea of the sort of people who might be running such a site. I was expecting an index of palacial pissoires, though (recognised classics such as the Philharmonic and the Princess Louise in Holborn) but the site is less obvious, less organised and (sometimes) significantly less pleasant than that. It’s dedicated to all manner of urinals, some of which are Very Nasty Indeed.

They seem to welcome contributions but ‘ please ‘ don’t be taking your snaps while unsuspecting souls are at their toilet.