Abstract: A toilet seat (12) is attached to a toilet bowl (11) by a hinge (9). A lid (14) is also pivoted about a shaft (16) fixed to the seat and forming part of the hinge. A spring (18) acts between the lid and the seat such that, when left in a raised position, the seat is biased towards a lowered position and a catch (21) acts to retain the seat relative to the lid. A proximity detector is arranged to sense when a user moves away from the water closet (10) and is then operable to release the catch to allow movement of the toilet seat from the raised position to the lowered position. The apparatus provides for automatic lowering of the seat and is constructed in a compact manner which contains the essential components within a hollow base portion (15) of the lid.