Designing London’s Recovery

My main concern is safety and hygiene/cleanliness. I would use a toilet if I needed to (for instance, after shops have closed) and it was in a light area with lots of foot traffic and maybe cameras outside. As a woman, my personal safety is my primary concern.

We need more public toilets so that everyone can fulfil their basic needs with dignity, including the most vulnerable and the homeless

Toilets need to be clean and not used as a hangout for undesirables.
I'd like them to be free as I would worry about not having the right coin. Or they should take contactless cards.
I would worry more about going underground, the freestanding cubicles on the street are clearly safer - we used to have two in Hampstead Village but they were taken away.
There should be more accessible toilets and Changing Places toilets.
Can there be a scheme where they are attached to commercial premises which are paid to maintain and police them?

When I am planning a walk it is important that the start point has a toilet available.
In Lambeth not all parks have a public toilet, and not all stations.
I'm particularly sad that the following parks have no nearby toilet facilities
Vauxhall pleasure gardens
Vauxhall park
Kennington park
We choose to picnic in brockwell park as there are toilets there.
I am sad that the new,kennington lane Tesco does not have toilets (the Tesco they bulldozed has toliets , which were incredibly useful, I'd use them before shopping if I was on my way home from somewhere else.

As an older man one of the first things I have to consider on travelling across London, or just in Haringey, is where I will be able to find a toilet, and that is not an easy task as there is such a dearth of public toilets. I often have to use that belonging to a cafe, or go out of my way to the local Shopping City where I know there will be a public toilet. Several in this borough which once existed are shut, and the one by the bus station in Turnpike Lane is kept locked.

Lack of public toilets in the Royal Bourgh of Greenwich is a joke.
The council recently spent £6 million on revamping Eltham High Street but ignoring the toilets that are still locked and have been for at least 10 years.
Here in New Eltham, SE9 we have a "Darlik" style toilet that costs 50p. But the doors can open without warning! They clean it every day. It must cost a forturn to maintain. This is because they sold off our underground toilets to Virgin so they could use it for their cables. Money before comfort.

I feel obliged to purchase things from Petrol Stations where I use their toilets.
It’s a very expensive hobby.
I find that the public toilets I know of it’s very hard to park a van nearby.
During the pandemic it was horrendous because everything was closed but deliveries still had to be made.

Are they women only toilets?
Are they staffed?
Are they clean?

I'm genuinely pleased to see this survey but how many more surveys and reports do we need on this? There was a report about the lack of toilets in London back in 2011 and since then we've had press releases about this every other year, the 2017 London Plan calling for more toilets, recommendations from the Health Committee in 2021, 'The Toilet Paper' from 2021, there have been lots of comments on this from Caroline Russell, the Mayor has called for more toilets, it was raised after the end of lockdown, etc, etc. It just goes on and on and it's nice to be consulted yet again but we all know the answer: there are very few free accessible public toilets and the Mayor needs to build more or reopen the ones that already exist. Sorry to sound cross but can we see some action on this rather than more consultation?

There certainly need to be more Public Toilets as it is trial and error knowing where they are at present

In areas of London (eg: central Brixton) it is all sorts of visitors that use the streets, people’s gardens, doorsteps both day and night. It is disgraceful , especially for children to witness and for women to be abused by men urinating. The so-called night time economy brings major issues for residents when there is totally inadequate toilet provision. The local authority and London government know about this. How is it possible that such anti-social behaviour is acceptable yet the provision of toilets is not considered mandatory ? Residents have campaigned for years. Take_The_P_Out_Of_Brixton …..Facebook and Twitter . Not only campaigned but produced constructive solutions for which no one is prepared to pay .

We need to encourage public houses, restaurants and supermarkets to open their facilities to non customer.

Public toilets are a necessity - especially for people with illnesses like crones or colitis, older people, pregnant women, people with children, etc. A lack of access to public toilets limits these people’s ability to go out of the house. Free public toilets should be available for use across the capital, especially at train stations, in public parks, and in areas where people congregate e.g. around shops and places of work. For example, there is no toilet at Alexandra Palace station, or anywhere nearby. The local pub which has a toilet isn’t open all the time, and so there is nowhere for people who want to catch the train to go to the loo.

Best to have free public toilets. If have to pay, need a card option.

Generally speaking, the standard of toilets in London is disgusting.

Biggest driving factor for me - look and smell.

I take the point that I'm not using a toilet at the Ritz, but I cannot stand to use facilities that have me focused on their physical condition 🤮

It's often clear when people have chosen to abuse public toilets and I'd rather not put myself through that.

They would need to be clean with locks on the cubicle doors. There would need to be plenty of toilet rolls in all the cubicles, plus soap, paper towels and warm running water. Separate ladies and gents toilets and enough cubicles so that ladies didn’t have to wait in long queues.