SINK
Written by James Ward
I went to Sheffield this weekend to go to Interesting North.
We stayed in room 159 of the Leopold Hotel. It was a very nice room, but I was confused by the sink in the bathroom. Specifically, the plug:
I wasn’t sure how to allow the water in the sink to drain out. I assumed there might be a lever somewhere so that it would pop-up, but there wasn’t. I looked everywhere.
“Perhaps there are some instructions somewhere” I suggested. I looked through the various pamphlets and other literature the hotel had supplied. There weren’t any instructions. The Leopold Hotel expects its guests to use their own initiative when it comes to problem solving. They don’t treat you like babies, they don’t patronise you.
Eventually, I worked it out. The metal plug doesn’t pop up at all. It flips:
I had assumed it was a pop-up waste, when all along, it was a flip top basin waste:
With modern, minimalist bathroom designs becoming so popular today, this has brought to the forefront many freestanding bowls and wash basins with clean, smooth lines and no overflow. Quite often complemented by tall basin mixers or wall mounted basin taps without pop up wastes.
With this flip top basin waste the plug is operated by simply pushing down on one side.
I shall write to the Leopold Hotel and suggest it would be helpful if they could ensure that all flip-top wastes used in the bathrooms are left in the upright position before a new guest checks in.
This would avoid anyone else having to go through the confusion and panic I suffered on Friday afternoon.
JAMES WARD: I LIKE BORING THINGS 
This post really is, ahem, plumbing new depths of banality.
I didn’t think that you would, ahem, sink so low. (Because James was on his own with his problem, effectively “solo”)
You are my soulmate, James Ward. Not only we love the same pen, we had the same experience in the same city. I was, however, in the lesser Premier Inn in Castle Market. How long did it take you to work it out? I did it in around 25 minutes. Shame on me, really.
I have been to exactly the same hotel and had exactly the same experience with the sink. Took me ages to figure it out.
And when I did figure it out it annoyed me. So in other words, in order to empty the sink you have to stick your hand in your now-filthy water? That doesn’t work for me.
i showed this to my three year old son, who has a serious case of toddler OCD, and he LOVED it.
I have this plug IN MY FLAT.
What’s happened to the bog standed sink with the crusty broken chain? I hate all this change. Bah humbug.
“Bath” humbug?