This ingenious Twitter account is sharing the door codes you need to pee in London’s loos

Being out and about in London and needing the loo is never ideal. Public toilets are hard to come by and, let’s be honest, are probably best avoided. The next viable option is usually the trusty coffee shop chain, which populates every street in London. Hoping the shop owner doesn’t catch you and sneaking in for a wee is a classic British move. Nowadays, however, our crafty ways are being busted by heavyweight keypads and codes (that are never 0000 – trust me, I’ve tried).

Now a Twitter account is here to save us from having to hack the toilet Da Vinci Code. London Loo Codes, created by students Soph and Merl, provides a spreadsheet containing loads of codes to the capital’s bogs. 

The spreadsheet, organised by location, currently has more than 70 entries, from your classic Pret to your more exclusive toilet ‘experience’ at Ole & Steen. This way, you can just check your phone and walk right on in there without acting all shady or buying a coffee you can’t afford and don’t actually want to drink.  

Gender neutral: 🙋🏻‍♀️
Using a whimsical LOTR reference for privileging bathroom access: 🙅🏻‍♀️

[Code is C1980Y. W4terstones Tottenham court Road. Not wheelchair accessible.] pic.twitter.com/CheAupCumR

— London Loo Codes (@ldnloocodes) January 21, 2020

The friends started their code catalogue at university when studying in coffee shops. Aware that not everyone has the luxury of being able to buy a coffee, walk miles to find another loo or hold it in when needing it unexpectedly, Soph and Merl decided to share their knowledge on Twitter, allowing people to contribute the codes they have found too, along with info about the toilet’s accessibility, its gender neutrality and other stuff. 

‘We’re concerned about what lack of loo access means for the elderly, people with disabilities and chronic illness, homeless people, people with kids etc, and that’s what really drove us to try and do something about it and start this account,’ they told the Metro earlier this month.

Once the owners of these gated toilets realise, they might start changing the codes more regularly. Or, as Soph and Merl hope, the loos might become properly publicly accessible, so everyone can pee for free instead. 

Either way, for now, it’s a pretty inventive way to solve our restroom requirements. 🚽

Did you know, you can now pee for free at every major London station? 

All that peeing made you thirsty? Check out these London bars in former public toilets.