There’s still the seventh-floor grand piano and no powder room alas, but the consistent cleanliness doesn’t disappoint. The Queen Victoria Buildings’ ladies powder room on its upper level hints at an old fashioned glamour in name and architecture, but the toilets are often patronised – or is that matronised – by users who leave toilet paper on the floor. The men’s loo at the north end, I’m reliably informed, are old and funky and reminded one patron of bathrooms in the Harry Potter movies (think the Chamber of Secrets). Other centrally located lavatories include the QT toilets in the old Gowings buildings – spacious with trademark QT quirk – and those at the ArtHouse hotel, a renovated old art school, and St Mary's Cathedral. A new kid on the CBD WC block is the recently renovated Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park. They are roomy and well lit and have the rare distinction of being opened by royalty (Prince Harry and Meghan on their tour here last October). There once were chambers fit for kings at Level 41, a restaurant atop the Chifley building in the city where the men’s urinal – and the women’s wash basin – boasted one of the best harbour views.

Alas it is no more – gone like the cubicles which became opaque when you locked the door to make the most of the view at the old Pyrmont premises of Flying Fish restaurant. Gone, too, is the towering presence of the toilets at the American Express Building – formerly at 388 George Street, which many men remember for the spectacular city scenery rather than the gents’ urinal itself. There are other loos with views not quite so centrally located (Fisher Library at the University of Sydney and Bradley’s Head, where one side is open to a sandstone cliff, plus you can’t beat the harbourside location). Circular Quay, one of the busiest parts of the city, is devoid of good public facilities – but for the ones at the ferry terminal (follow the long lines, you can’t miss them) and the modern charm at Customs’ House. Loading

Regular public transport users (many of them commuters busting by the time their train trip is complete) rate the toilets at another busy place: Central Station. For men, an all time favourite still seems to be the National Trust-listed cast iron men's latrine, or "pissoir", at The Rocks, which dates back to the late 1800s. Outside of the city, Westpoint Blacktown’s dazzling dunnies just won Australia’s 2019 Best Bathroom Competition. Montagne, the French restaurant in the Fairfield RSL, gets a nod of approval for its ladies loos and the grand silver mirrors above the basins in the ladies washroom at Guildford RSL are very regal. Some outliers deserve a special mention: the disabled toilet at Woy Woy Station for its bay view, the men’s toilet at the Grand Arch at Jenolan Caves – made of stone to blend with the “cavey ambience” – and the ladies loo in the Emu Plains shopping centre. In the Southern Highlands, the 1924 original bathrooms at the Robertson Hotel and the award-winning toilets at Mittagong’s information centre get the nod. Some of my personal favourites include the downstairs dungeonesque toilets at the Beresford Hotel in Surry Hills and the understated style of the bathrooms post-refit at Quay Restaurant. Although not technically open to the public, their memory lingers rather than their smell – like the one you get from toilets in car parks – most especially in their fire escapes.