News

It turns out 30 percent of London’s public toilets are not accessible

The city ranks high on a new list of Britain’s worst bogs

Rhian Daly
Written by
Rhian Daly
Contributor
Public toilet sign London
ShutterstockPublic toilet sign in street of London
Advertising

We all know that feeling – the sudden realisation that your bladder’s about to burst and you’ve no idea where the nearest toilet is. Will you make it in time or have to succumb to the indignity of the public pee? 

Even if you do make it before your internal floodgates open, you might not like what you find. London is great for many things but, according to a new study, decent public loos isn’t one of them – particularly in the case of accessible toilets. 

Bathroom retailer Victorian Plumbing has taken a close look at the UK’s bogs, examining things like hygiene, cost, accessibility, family-friendly facilities and more. The results are crappy news for Londoners: out of 1,463 loos, only 32.9 percent are accessible. 

It’s bad news for families too, with only 31.5 percent of the city’s facilities offering baby-changing amenities. But at least, most of the time, we don’t have to scrape together cash when we need to spend a penny: 71.4 percent of London’s loos are free to use. 

Unfortunately, that isn’t enough to save us in the big public toilets ranking. London comes in sixth on the Top 10 Worst Loos list, with only Dundee, Carlisle, Newport, Birmingham and Hull above us. In contrast, Edinburgh comes out on top of the best loos chart, with Peterborough, Brighton and Hove, Belfast and Norwich not far behind. 

Caught short in the city? This map will show you all the loos that are open.

Read more: 8 surprising London bars in public toilets.

Popular on Time Out

    You may also like
    You may also like
    Advertising