Copy of the book 'Designing Inclusive Public Toilets' in front of white bathroom tiles. In the foreground is a rubber duck.
My book is published today 📚. It’s called Designing Inclusive Public Toilets: Wee the People, written with @jo-anneb.bsky.social. It’s part inclusive design guide, part manifesto for better public toilets 🚽. Buy copies for all your friends! 🎁. Here’s what you’ll find inside 🧵
For five years, we’ve mapped gender neutral toilets. But for 4 in 5 public toilets, we just don’t know what loos exist. Can you help find more?
Toilet provision is critical for many Londoners and visitors—it can even determine whether somebody travels on public transport at all.
Great news that a new accessible toilet at White Hart Lane is now open, with Seven Sisters and more to follow.
Fascinating new report from AgeUK London, 'Lifting the Lid', about #publictoilets and #localgov in the capital. Full of great data, such as:
- 97 toilets closed in ten years.
- but 32 opened (I know that sounds bad, but I'm pleased it's any).
www.ageuk.org.uk/london/publi...
It’s a relief that in fact the @toiletmap.bsky.social isn’t such a secret: secretldn.com/public-toile...
Happy to have contributed to a more readable base layer — further contributions welcome!
From a community toilet in Friockheim, Scotland, to London loos in Tower Hamlets and Trafalgar Square, check out our 🚽 stars of 2024!🌟
We’re proud to be a member of the London Loo Alliance. We want to hear form Londoners about their experiences of finding a public toilet when they are out and about this festive season. Please help us by completing this short survey bit.ly/LondonLooAll... #LondonLooSurvey
Great question from a visitor - 'I'll be in London for Christmas Day and I would like to know which toilets are open around Buckingham Palace, Westminster and Oxford Street?'
#London, what've we got?
A queue of 20+ women and children at the Ladies toilets. There’s no queue for the gents.
Euston, we have a problem.
Access to public toilets/bathrooms is a means of control. In the late Victorian period, public urinals for men started appearing but nothing for women. This has a name - the urinary leash. It restricted how far women could travel, preventing them from doing many things that men could easily do.
It's two years since I've written a blog post, but inspired by some of the recent goings on in Westminster here are a few thoughts: doingyourbusiness.blogspot.com/2024/11/what...
Screenshot of toiletmap.org.uk centred on Richmond, Teddington and Kingston. Map shows some pins and some circles indicating groups of toilets. Circles have numbers inside - 13, 19, 8, 6, 4 etc.
Huge contribution this week from a member of the public - nearly 100 toilets updated for Richmond-upon-Thames long-running Community Toilet Scheme. Thank you!
Check out Toilet Map @toiletmap.bsky.social which uses the @protomaps.com OSM basemap with Leaflet!
www.toiletmap.org.uk
It’s the ambulant cubicle, a larger space with grab rails for anyone less physically able to sit/stand or who needs extra room. The outward opening doors increases the space, but if all doors did that, extra room would be needed to not whack people waiting! Hence at the end of the row. - Gail
More people have a mobile phone than have access to a toilet...
Sanitation is a human right. It protects everyone’s dignity, and especially transforms the lives of women and girls. More investment and better governance of sanitation are critical for a fairer, more peaceful world. #WorldToiletDay
Toilet dignity is a serious issue for many transport workers.
For example, many bus services operate along routes where drivers don't have guaranteed access to a suitable toilet.
This #WorldToiletDay we're calling for guaranteed toilet dignity for all workers 🧻
Screenshot reads: Toilet Map Feedback. Excellent Really appreciate it Saved my wife from a lot of misery. Comment has 3 heart emojis.
Thank you for your support over the years, especially our star contributors and those who let us know the map has helped. Your feedback keeps us going!
Screenshot of The Toilet Map focused on Trafalgar Square, showing different red pins for toilet locations.
We’ve big plans for the next ten years! We just switched to a clearer OSM basemap. Then we trimmed our name to The Toilet Map. Next, our indefatigable volunteer developer @olliethinks.bsky.social is building a blog so we can shout louder about new loos (and highlight where the map needs more love).
Screenshot of part of a .csv file, focused on the notes field. Notes include 'owned and run by the parish council', 'through former north door (left-hand side of nave facing alter' and '8am-1 hour before sunset')
And what about that data? It’s available for reuse under open licence (CC-BY, like an Open Government Licence). And it’s used by bus drivers, delivery drivers, cyclists, local councils and continence charities, as well as by developers and university researchers keen to see what else it can reveal.
Screenshot of Toilet Map Explorer page. This shows twenty anonymous edits to toilets over four days, in seven different parts of the UK.
Piloted from RCA research (2012), version-1 was funded by Social Tech Fund. In 2016, with @odihq.bsky.social funds, we made toiletmap.org.uk/Explorer (recently prettified by a Github volunteer) to interrogate the data. We had lots of help from #opendata enthusiasts in Twitter’s happier days, too.
Black metre-high pillar box with coin slot. White letters read 'Donations - for the upkeep of the toilets. This box is emptied regularly'. (Hathersage, image by Rosanna Traina)
We’ve been able to grow despite 34% of ‘public toilets’ being closed since 2000 (Valuation Office Agency Data, via Hansard). The UK’s toilet provision is complicated and until now, unmapped. We want to make it easy to know where to go when you need to go.
Standard white toilet with wooden seat in a stone hut atop a grassy mount, overlooking blue seas with blue skies (South West Coastal Path)
Because of you! Adding, editing (and removing) toilets through our website toiletmap.org.uk. This helps everyone, particularly people who need to know there will be toilets to get to work, go to new places, enjoy the outdoors, and simply go about their daily lives.
iPhone held in a hand, in front of a London street with black cab and red bus in background. The screen is headed 'Nearest Toilets' and shows four frames each with a location pin.
On this #WorldToiletDay 🚽 we celebrate our tenth birthday of The Toilet Map!
Launched on 19-Nov 2014 with 9000 loos, The Great British Public Toilet Map has grown to 15000 publicly accessible toilets - any the public can use that aren’t ‘customer-only’.
But how do we keep finding loos? 🧵(1/7)
Screenshot of part of a .csv file, focused on the notes field. Notes include 'owned and run by the parish council', 'through former north door (left-hand side of nave facing alter' and '8am-1 hour before sunset')
And what about that data? It’s available for reuse under open licence (CC-BY, like an Open Government Licence). And it’s used by bus drivers, delivery drivers, cyclists, local councils and continence charities, as well as by developers and university researchers keen to see what else it can reveal.
Screenshot of Toilet Map Explorer page. This shows twenty anonymous edits to toilets over four days, in seven different parts of the UK.
Piloted in 2012 (TACT3/ESRC), version one was funded by Social Tech Fund. In 2016, with @odihq.bsky.social money, we made toiletmap.org.uk/Explorer (recently prettified by a Github volunteer) to interrogate the data. We had lots of help from #opendata enthusiasts in Twitter’s happier days, too.
Black metre-high pillar box with coin slot. White letters read 'Donations - for the upkeep of the toilets. This box is emptied regularly'. (Hathersage, image by Rosanna Traina)
We’ve been able to grow despite 34% of ‘public toilets’ being closed since 2000 (Valuation Office Agency Data, via Hansard). The UK’s toilet provision is complicated and until now, unmapped. We want to make it easy to know where to go when you need to go.
Standard white toilet with wooden seat in a stone hut atop a grassy mount, overlooking blue seas with blue skies (South West Coastal Path)
Because of you! Adding, editing (and removing) toilets through our website toiletmap.org.ukW. This helps everyone, particularly people who need to know there will be toilets to get to work, go to new places, enjoy the outdoors, and simply go about their daily lives. hate
Station manager at White Hart lane has opened a locked door on the platform and is showing a disused toilet block to Caroline who is pointing through the open door.
Seb Dandce Deputy Mayor for Transport and Caroline smiling by a White Hart Lane station roundel
Happy World Toilet Day! 🧻️ 🚽
Still plenty of work to do, but I’m so pleased with how much we’ve accomplished in the quest for more public toilets over the last year.
This is down to so many campaigners making the urgent case for public toilets to be included in an accessible transport network.
*refills the soap*
*replaces the flowers*
*folds the toilet paper into a little triangle*
Hello!