Views of a characteristic public gent’s in Amsterdam. Public conveniences like this have disappeared from almost all Dutch cities, but in Amsterdam they are surviving along the canals as a kind of heritage. Their popular name is ‘curl’ because of the shape of their metal shield curved around a hole in the floor. The curl encloses the user and so protects him from prying eyes. From the inside he can observe the street by peeking through a grid with small openings punched out in the shield. Inside, curl users have created a masculine atmosphere by leaving grafitti, empty beercans and a spicy smell.