IT'S raining men's in the streets around Kings Cross. Hallelujah! At last Sydney City Council is attempting to stem the late-night downpours which had threatened to become tsunamis if something wasn't done.

Angry residents had taken to wearing galoshes before the tide turned. Drunken hooligans were peeing over ATMs, upsetting banks which had been doing it to their customers for years.

Going with the flow ... Charles Waterstreet tests the new facility outside Kings Cross police station. Credit:Steve Lunam

As a civic-minded Darlinghurst local - and as a seasoned man of wetters, if not letters - I set out about 1am yesterday to road-test Clover Moore's new public conveniences. All in all, my first-night review is positive, despite slippery conditions. As Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson might say, a tight and tidy little number and very good at cutting corners.

Locating one of the pee stations directly outside Kings Cross police station, however, may not have been so wise. The intended clientele appeared to suffer stage fright. In the good while that I loitered in the mall, I was the only one who made practical, hands-on use of Clover's pissoir. (I always wanted to do it right there.)