As National Best Friends Day (8th June) approaches, Victorian Plumbing celebrates all the friends who found love in a hopeless place… the toilet! There are many long lost tales of strangers meeting in the bathroom, finding a genuine connection but never speaking again. But this time, Victorian Plumbing called for a national search to find all the people who have successfully nurtured friendships that blossomed in bathrooms. ‘Bathroomate’ is slowly replacing the centuries-old term ‘bestie’ as an increasing number of Brits are making and maintaining new meaningful friendships in this way.
Victorian Plumbing reveals the stories of women who share how they have sustained these relationships and what advice they would give to others on finding a new BFFL.
Andrea Daniel (38) & Sofia Fernandez (39)
"We met when we were 17 years old in our college toilets. I had just left my old college to join this new one, so I didn't have any friends yet. I went into the toilet and overheard this girl (Sofia) speaking to someone over the phone in Portuguese; I speak Portuguese too, which gave us something to bond over, especially being in a predominantly white school. After that, we continued to socialise both in and outside of school. Fast forward 22 years and two kids each later, we regularly go on family holidays together and have been present in the most important times of each other's lives. Sofia is more than my friend now. She is my sister. My advice to others is to be open to meeting new people because you never know the impact they will have on your life."
Rhea Jacobs (26) and Tamara Abedi (25)
"We met in the club toilets in Miami! I was on holiday with my friends and went to the bathroom to check on my makeup. Tamara walks in behind me as I'm fixing my makeup, wearing the same print and colours as me (which is normally a recipe for disaster). We looked at each other, laughed and complimented one another's outfits; as we did that, we realised we both had London accents. We talked and realised we actually live 30 minutes away from each other in London! After that, before we returned to London, we all partied together. Once we got back to London, we arranged to meet up and have been meeting up ever since. The moral of the story is sometimes wearing a similar outfit to someone on holiday is a good thing”
Fariha Choudhury (25) and Aminata Kanda (28)
“I was in the toilet with my friend and Aminata stopped us and asked if we were models (I wish!). She was really sweet and made a typical ‘meeting in the girls’ toilets’ conversation. She then asked if I’d like to model in her clothes, so I gave her my Instagram. The next time we met up was for one of my PR events a month later. She gave me one of her gorgeous pieces from a studio. We took photos for her clothing page and videos for my food blog. We ate great food and got to know one another. We still message each other and celebrate our wins (both big and small) which I love, and we will 100% be collaborating again soon! If the vibe feels right, my advice would be to follow up on the ‘we should meet up’ chat in the girls' toilets as you never know where that friendship could take you. This encounter was also my first PR opportunity in fashion.”
Brenna Ryan, Senior spokesperson at Victorian Plumbing, said: "We’re serious about bathrooms. So much so that we took on the challenge to find some of the most interesting stories of friends who met in a bathroom, or public toilet. Going to the bathroom and coming out 45 minutes later with four new Instagram handles is the new normal. It’s just not an empty bladder you can get when you leave a toilet - how about a friend for life?"
