Can anyone suggest a supplier for Villeroy & Boch basins, etc?

Unlike some top-end brands, I believe V&B will supply plumbers merchants so ask at your local independent one if they can give you a quote.

I bought the subway loo from a german site called megabad.de. A totally

German site, no English, terrible coms and demand bank transfer, but the savings were very good, fast delivery and excellent packaging. I'd recommend them.

That looks like being a very good lead ...

- loo: 161 Euro vs £202

- basin: 95 Euro vs £97

How much was shipping? How long was delivery?

I'm sure this will be obvious with hindsight but ... what's the difference between a "washdown" and a "wash-out" WC?

I'm doing this from memory, but I think shipping was about 50 euros, but that was for the loo and a whole bunch of shower valves, shower heads, etc. It's a bit of wierd site, in that you have to "order" before they quote the shipping, but they let you know by email (in German). I think it took about a week between them getting the money and us taking delivery. We saved about 30% overall. The only difficulty is dealing with the emails in german (for a non-speaker), but I found that they do speak English if you call them up.

No idea - the only two types of loo I can think of would be wall-hung and floor standing. Unless it's a urinal?

Don't the Germans have a habit of wanting to inspect their business before sending it on it's way? Could that represent the type with and without the shelf?

Some German WCs have a flat horizontal surface at the back of the bowl (a bit higher than the water level would be on a "normal" WC) with a smaller outlet in front of it.

Yup, I found the drawings: washdown is the good old British style, wash-out gives an opportunity for analysis before disposal!

Thanks to the earlier pointer to

Glad it worked out.

Jake