Designing London’s Recovery

How desperate I am dictates my choice to use public toilets, regardles of condition, I can have no choice.
Railway stations moving to making toilets at railway stations free of charge is fantastic, freeing me to travel around london with out worrying about the cost/having the right change, I will plan my routes via railway stations.
Certain public toilets charge far too much and are cynically exploiting tourists and those of us with medical conditions.

Children often need the loo while out and about and are not able to wait. Bearing this in mind, new designs should be:
buggy accessible;
have large enough cubicles for an adult to squeeze in while a small child uses the toilet (+ room for a big bag usually);
have hangers inside the cubicle for coats/bags;
incl a baby changing table somewhere;
easy to use locks;
additional sinks & dryers at child height.
Toilets to have nice seats and if possible additional mini seat add ons for children.

Hygiene to be high level. Motion sensor flush/taps/soap dispensers are useful for this. Cleaned regularly.

Not scalding hot water.

I found to quite difficult when I had a baby and needed the loo while out and about. Often a place has a baby change with no loo and then normal cubicles. This doesn't work when you have a babe in arms in a pram/buggy. It's not that easy to pee with the baby in a carrier but it's worse if you've got the pram with you. You have to take baby out and try to pee while holding them. You cannot leave them in the pram on the other side of the locked cubicle door. The best arrangement is a accessible toilet with a baby change. M&S usually has a loo big enough to take the pram/buggy in with you.

Take a look at Victoria Station for a splendid example of what used to be a dirty fee charging toilet but with a little investment has now been turned into a clean and free to use toilet with good capacity. Not surprisingly it's now popular and being well used by Londoners, including myself.

Because it's large, well used, well-lit and clean it feels safe.

In a safe area, maybe near a train station or public square.
Cleanliness.
Ideally free.
Baby changing facilities.
Community toilet scheme sounds good but needs to be publicised as no one knows about it.

I would consider my safety, have encountered drug addicts and the homeless in public toilets. They should be single sex facilities. Hygiene is a consideration, nobody wants to use a toilet if they are dirty. And cost, it shouldn't cost to pee.

Too many toilets locally are pop up And often not working or dirty. My late husband had dementia and could never find a public toilet where I could help him. Always try to find shop/ restaurant or heritage site/ garden to find decent disabled toilets. All toilets need regular cleaning: maintenance. Thanks

Cleanliness and safety are my top priority, along with accessibility. Children's changing facilities and disabled facilities should be separate. Many public toilets used to be manned, and the quality of toilet facilities plummeted when this was phased out. Personally, I would rather pay a small charge for a decent toilet than have free loos that are too disgusting to use.

Cleansiness and whether there are separate ladies toilets are the main issues for me - I avoid mixed toilets wherever possible. I generally use the toilets in railway stations as they have onsite cleaners and there is no charge to use them.

It would be really great if there were at least some fully accessible public disabled toilets with a hoist for those that need it. Without the hoist, people that need one can't go anywhere.

i drive all around london and i think its discusting there are so few toilets, the local councils don't seem to care about peoples needs

As I get older, I experience an urgency sometimes and have to try to plan to use the bathroom every couple of hours. If I think there is a risk, I will limit what I drink to avoid being in a public place and unable to access a toilet. It would be reassuring to know that public toilets existed.

I think the last one I used was linked to The South Bank and had a turn style, was manned and charged. I don't mind a nominal charge where the public toilet is manned. It was a long time ago, so I might be wrong about the location.

I frequently need to use a toilet when I'm out, and have a hard time finding one. It especially comes up when I've dropped my daughter off at a Saturday club and don't have time to go back home. The only factor I consider is how badly I need to relieve myself! But when we say "public toilet" I assume this means FREE public toilet. I don't care if it's just a hole in the ground, I just want somewhere with privacy to relieve myself. Especially in wealthy areas like say, Hammersmith & Fulham, it's criminally difficult to find a public toilet. Some of the existing ones are even locked shut, which is outrageous.

A public toilet needs to be (a.k.a. look and smell) CLEAN. No one likes to use a dirty, messy and/or smelly toilet. Further more l, every public toilet must have two separate facilities, one for handicapped/disabled people and one for families/mothers with babies or kids. These are the bare minimum requirements, otherwise people will keep using the Starbucks or McDonalds toilets which, by no means, have the best standards either, but yet still better than current public facilities.

In the London Borough of Waltham Forest where I live, the Public Yoilets were closed and the Council implemented a 'Community Toilet Scheme' where some pubs and cafes are paid to allow non-customers to use their toilets.
This is a ridiculous situation as: 1. The Pubs and some cafes are not open early in the day and most cafes are shut at night.
2. even local residents are not aware which businesses are in the scheme so how would a stranger know?
Public Toilets are an essential facility, particularly for the elderly or people with children. Local Councils should reinstate these facilities now that Business rates are not charged on them and ensure that they are free to use and clean and well maintained.
When on holiday outside of London, every Town or Village that we visited had Public Toilets. It is a disgrace that London does not.

Whether or not to use a toilet:
- Whether there is one. I can only think of one in my borough, within half-hour walking distance. It's in a shopping centre, hard to find, on an upper floor. I've only been there once.
-Is it clean? In this case yes.
- are there other people around? I have often felt unsafe in toilets in locations like shopping centres /car parks because there were no other people using it or passing by. The toilets are often at the end of a corridor, at the top of a building or on the basement. Not easily accessible or safe.

What would I need to see or hear to feel safe?
- an attendant /cleaner
- other people around, using the toilets or passing by shopping.

One of the major factors is how other people have left the toilet. Urine everywhere, toilet paper not flushed, towels not put in bin - toilets not flushing.

Where I live this is a user problem even where toilets are new or refurbished. There seems to be no shared public commitment to maintaining the facility for all of us by all of us.