Some people like these cramped older buildings because of location, location, location.
Today's building codes wouldn't allow a lot of things you find in older buildings. But many aspects of older buildings are grandfathered in because of the difficulty and cost of retrofitting. These are often buildings where apartments are already small and there's no expansion room. Europe seems to have a lot of those. I'd guess older big cities in the USA would have many, too.
If it were me, I'd just drop the outlet in the bathroom altogether. I don't need a hair dryer. I shave in the bathroom, but I could charge the razor elsewhere. I would be fine with the British rules on bathroom outlets, or less. I'd even put the lights on low voltage isolated wiring with the transformer in another room. That would violate 210.11(C)(3) and 210.52(D) but I'd rather violate those than 406.8(C) or have the outlet where the shower water could reach it. I have no idea what an inspector would say.
Bathroom. An area including a basin with one or more of the following: a toilet, a tub, or a shower.What if the basin is in one room, and a toilet, tub, or shower is in another? Seems like neither room really fits the definition of a bathroom. If I had tiny apartment like that, maybe I could move the basin to another room
