Normally I'd call the room in which the loo is "the loo". However, I have an action scene set in a loo room, and it's necessary to talk about the room and the loo separately. I've used "the small room" (not "the smallest room") to allude to the room.

Any ideas, that sound natural?

TIA,

Deb

I'd say the bathroom, personally.

Thanks Jem. But there's no bath in it...? What do you call it if no bath in it?

Oh, I see. The Americans say "rest room", don't they? "The smallest room" is a euphemism and sounds a bit twee, which is okay if someone calls it that in character but sounds odd, otherwise. You could differentiate between loo, the room and lavatory, the actual piece of equipment.

Is it in a particular place in the house? As in "It's not the bathroom, it's the downstairs loo" or something. Would feel more like the room than the china.

Emma

Jem, I didn't use "the smallest room" cos it would sound twee, and isn't right for my first person vp. I used small room cos it involves her being in there and things like:

"She pressed herself against the back wall of the small room."

She is inside the room for some time, and some action takes place in there (violence actually), so I just wanted a way to describe the room easily.

Loo, toilet and lavatory all mean the same, really - both the porcelain and the room in which it dwells.

Emma, thanks - downstairs loo would work well if it was being said by people who lived there. She doesn't live there and it's an alien environment for her (she is in someone else's house and is attacked).

I really appreciate all the suggestions. Not sure there is a good alternative, so I'll just have to soldier on with what I've got. But nice to know I'm not missing something obvious...

Deb

I think 'small room' doesn't give the impression of a toilet immediately.
How about you actually mention the toilet in passing, so the reader knows, eg:

She pressed herself against the back wall, sandwiched between the window and the toilet.

OR:

She pressed herself against the back wall. The loo-roll holder dug into her thigh.

Or something.
Susiex

Or, what about 'cloakroom'? If it's in a private house, I think that would be understood as a loo with washbasin?

Susiex

Cloakroom if it's downstairs.

Oooh, cloakroom is good, thanks both.

Susie, it's already known that she's in there. The difficulty in finding another way of putting it was to avoid saying over and over that she's in the room with the loo.

Thanks you all - much appreciated!

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We already know it's a loo room, cos she's just used the loo. There just isn't an adequate word for it when one can't use the label "loo" (or toilet or lavatory) for fear of confusion with the actual porcelain thing.

Where is your story set? How do people refer to it there? If it was set in our northern town, for example, it would just be called 'the toilet'.

But if she's in a posher situation, she would use something different, appropriate to the character or to the setting in which she finds herself.

Could it be an ensuite?

Edel

The bog?

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After all, you did ask for ideas that sound natural.

Cloakroom!?
Yegads, NO.
A cloakroom is where you hang your coat not where you point your percy.

I'm with Gaius. Cloakroom conjures up images of an attendant dourly watching the proceedings and wondering who's job it's going to be to clean up the mess. Likewise, 'closet' would have me wondering how they're managing to dodge all the brooms.

You could use the term that the French use: WC. That is, after all, the place where the toilet is, rather than the toilet itself. Restroom is another term that refers to the room rather than the plumbing, but it does sound very American (I once heard a woman at Birmingham Airport, on being asked for the restroom, remark, "That's a posh word for it!"). Bathroom also sounds American, unless there is a bath there as well. I'm struggling to think of any alternative to these, other than 'toilet', 'loo' or 'lavatory'. If you say 'in' plus one of those terms, it would generally be understood to mean the room, unless they were doing that scene from the last Harry Potter film.

Alex