{"id":457972,"date":"2026-02-04T14:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/457972\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:16:12","slug":"art-museums-flamboyant-toilets-win-national-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/457972\/","title":{"rendered":"Art museum’s flamboyant toilets win national award"},"content":{"rendered":"

“This is exactly the sort of thing we’d love to be known for,” says a museum which has picked up an award for its “beautiful” loos.<\/p>\n

The Sherborne in Dorset flushed away competition at the 2025 Loo of the Year Awards, and picked up the Quirky Award for its toilet facilities.<\/p>\n

The event on 14 January recognised the very best “away-from-home” washrooms across the UK and Ireland.<\/p>\n

“We do have the most gorgeous and flamboyant toilets,” boasted Liz Gilmore, the Sherborne’s chief executive, who said the museum “couldn’t be prouder”.<\/p>\n

\"Tropical<\/p>\n

The ladies loos have a tropical feel and red velvet furniture [The Sherborne]<\/p>\n

It is free for visitors to spend a penny and visit the toilets, which Gilmore called “an experience in themselves”.<\/p>\n

She described the ladies loos as having a tropical feel with birds and plants adorning the walls and doors, and red velvet furniture available for customers to sit on.<\/p>\n

She said the men’s were designed to celebrate “gorgeous fish and incredible hues of colour” in an underwater themed facility.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The men’s toilets show an underwater scene [The Sherborne]<\/p>\n

Dorset’s 18th Century Sherborne House underwent a three-year, multi-million pound restoration project before reopening as an art museum called “The Sherborne” in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Every aspect of the restoration thought about meticulous attention to detail,” Gilmore said.<\/p>\n

She believes the “beautiful and sumptuous” loos are just an example of their vision which was to be “something very special for everyone”.<\/p>\n

She said the museum was nominated for the toilet award by an unknown member of the public.<\/p>\n

“We are so thrilled, it’s recognition of what we’re trying to do culturally, for the town, for the whole region,” Gilmore said.<\/p>\n

The Loo of the Year Awards first started in 1987, holding washrooms to the highest standard in terms of accessibility, hygiene, repair, and facilities.<\/p>\n

St David’s Dewi Sant shopping centre in Cardiff picked up this the prestigious Golden Loo Seat Trophy as the overall winner.<\/p>\n

More on this storyRelated Links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“This is exactly the sort of thing we’d love to be known for,” says a museum which has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457973,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[235803,449,458,459,64,63,460,33819,134,235801,235804,235802],"class_list":{"0":"post-457972","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art-museum","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-au","13":"tag-australia","14":"tag-design","15":"tag-dorset","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-liz-gilmore","18":"tag-loo-of-the-year-awards","19":"tag-sherborne"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}