No Place to Go

The scandal of Britain's disappearing public toilets

In the late Seventies and early Eighties I developed an interest in beer, and particularly in visiting various towns around the country to try new pubs and sample different brews. The after-effects of drinking several pints are fairly predictable, but if you needed to go there was always a public toilet not too far away, and certainly one in every town or village of any size. However, as the Eighties continued, I noticed that local authorities were starting to close public toilets, at first just a trickle in run-down areas where the demand had disappeared, but eventually spreading across the whole of their areas and in some cases reducing the level of provision by three-quarters or more. Stockport closed about half the toilets in the borough in about 1990, and at one point there were only fourteen in the whole of the City of Manchester, although they have opened a few basic new ones recently.

Now, I would freely admit that providing toilets for the convenience of those who have had a few pints must come a long way down the list of priorities - but it may, as explained below, have a benefit in avoiding nuisance to others. But I strongly believe Britain's disappearing public toilets represent a hidden national scandal and a major erosion of our quality of life. It is an embarrassing topic that people are reluctant to speak up about, and this has undoubtedly made it easier for penny-pinching local councils to decimate the level of provision.

There are many vulnerable groups in society such as pregnant women, mothers with small children, the elderly, and people with various bowel and bladder conditions, for whom the lack of public toilets is a major restriction on their activities. The average person urinates eight times a day, about every two hours while they are awake. Given that this is an average, many will need to urinate more often. A strong desire to urinate every 75 or 90 minutes is not at all unusual and does not necessarily indicate any medical problem. A simple two-hour trip to the shops can become a nightmare if you feel there's a strong chance you won't be able to last out that long. There are reports of elderly people becoming dehydrated because the lack of toilets makes them unwilling to drink anything while they are out of the house.

Another important point is that anyone on a long car journey of two and a half hours or more is likely to need to use a toilet at some point. On motorways, there is a reasonable provision of service areas, but on other roads, the availability of toilets is very patchy, and has become markedly worse in recent years. A driver who is bursting for the loo is not a safe driver.

There is a marked disparity in provision between areas with a strong tourist trade and major urban centres. In some seaside resorts there is still a public loo every half-mile along the prom, and in some popular tourist areas such as North Cornwall and, nearer home, the Peak District, virtually every village of any size will have a small but well-cared-for toilet block.

In contrast, many urban areas, particularly in the former Metropolitan Counties, have dramatically cut back provision even further than Manchester, to just leave a small handful in the major shopping centres. In authorities such as Sheffield and Gateshead, many substantial suburban shopping and transport hubs are now completely devoid of toilets. It is true that vandalism can be a serious problem, but the response to this should be to develop robust, vandal-proof designs rather than using it as an excuse to give up. Tourists don't have inherently weaker bladders than locals - it's just that they're in a position to take their custom elsewhere if they're not treated decently.

Now that our big urban centres are trying to promote themselves as tourist destinations, it is time that they reviewed their provision of toilets. The situation in central Manchester is appalling, with just a single set of conventional public toilets in the city centre - incredibly, less than the number in small tourist-friendly towns like Buxton or Ludlow. And those toilets (near the Town Hall) are well away from the main shopping areas. There used to be lavish underground toilets by Piccadilly Gardens, which were for a while replaced by cramped, squalid above-ground facilities. These in their turn have now given way to a single automatic "Superloo" which, in the central public space of what aims to be seen as one of Britain's most vibrant and progressive cities, is an absolute disgrace. Nottingham, incidentally, is markedly better, and it still has spacious undergound bogs in the market place.

In the past, the Victorians provided large numbers of male-only urinals on the streets of major towns and cities, virtually all of which have now disappeared. You can still see the remnants at a few locations around Stockport and Manchester. The reason they did this was not so much that they had a great concern for the welfare of the working man, but they didn't want to see him pissing in the street. The prevention of nuisance to others is an entirely legitimate reason for providing public toilets, which is still valid today.

In the clubland districts of Manchester and any other big city, between 11 pm and 2 am on any Friday or Saturday night, it is a common sight to see young men openly urinating in the streets, and not even making any attempt to hide down back alleys. Obviously many will find this utterly disgusting, but the fact is that it happens. However, surely a few strategically-placed urinals would largely eliminate the problem, and this must be the answer rather than applying some kind of impractical "zero tolerance" policy. I once read an article suggesting that the sight of a derelict pissing in the street was a sign of the breakdown of decent behaviour in New York, but the conclusion must be rather that it shows up New York's inadequate numbers of public loos.

The provision of male-only urinals with no female equivalent may not be acceptable in today's society. But it is no justification for taking a dog-in-the-manger attitude and simply closing urinals without any form of replacement. I don't know what the solution is to this - perhaps it would be possible to develop a very basic and robust female urinal, but in practice, would women use them?

Recently (early 2002) there have been reports that Manchester City Council are planning to install temporary urinals in the city centre, which are concealed below pavement level during the day, but rise up for use in the late evening. These apparently have met with success in Amsterdam. At least this is an attempt to address the problem, but valid concerns have been raised about privacy and decency, and surely a far better solution would be to provide the "few strategically-placed urinals" mentioned above, open 24 hours a day, and providing the necessary privacy.

In recent years we have seen the spread of coin-operated, automatic "Superloos", but these really are no substitute for proper provision. They are prone to breakdown, many people are unwilling to use them because they are too visible in the middle of a busy street, and they are inappropriate for meeting the demand for urinals. Just imagine the consequences if a minibus on a rugby club trip followed a sign to "toilets" only to be confronted with a single Superloo. At the very least there should be a single, concealed urinal stall at the side of every Superloo.

Surely there should be a statutory duty on local authorities to provide an adequate number of proper public toilets in their areas. This should, as a minimum, be one facility for every 10,000 population, and in every individual town or village with at least 5,000 people. They should be open 7 days a week, 364 days a year (I suppose they could close on Christmas day), for at least 9 hours a day. Some local authorities already achieve this with some way to spare, so why can't the others?

It could well be said that a country's level of civilisation can be judged by the standard of its public toilets. Providing an adequate level of public toilets, in terms of both coverage and quality of facilities, must be a major step in making Britain a more decent country to live in.

(Last updated April 2005)

If you're reading this page, you may be interested in IBS Tales - Personal stories of Irritable Bowel Syndrome sufferers.

Another link worth visiting is this article by Dr Clara Greed entitled Public Toilets in the 24 Hour City

Return to Home Page