RCA Launches Largest Database of Publicly Accessible Toilets in the UK

Bringing together details of over 8,000 public toilets including community toilet schemes, provisions across local boroughs, train stations, shopping centres and libraries, the map is the UK's largest and most coherent database of publicly accessible toilets. It launches today on World Toilet Day – the United Nations’ annual campaign to boost commitment to better sanitation globally.

Visitors to the GBPT website can find their nearest five toilets, wherever they are in the UK, as well as filter results to meet their personal needs such as wheelchair access or baby-changing facilities. Users can also help improve the service for others by adding new toilets and information to the map.

The website, developed by open-source specialist Neontribe for the RCA’s Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, and supported by UK Research Council funding and social investor Nominet Trust, is optimised to be accessible across all devices including desktops, tablets and smartphones. 

According to Jo-Anne Bichard, Senior Research Fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design who has been working on the project, 'For many people, not knowing the availability of a nearby toilet can limit decisions to venture out, as they would rather avoid the anxiety of desperately searching for a public toilet, or potential embarrassment. This can, in turn, fuel isolation and lack of independence.' 

'Far from being an issue that just affects the elderly, the need to easily locate and access a nearby toilet is universal. Those with young children benefit from better information on toilets being accessible to the public as much as those suffering illness,' Bichard explained.

The RCA’s study, funded by New Dynamics of Ageing and focused on the environmental challenges that people face in accessing toilet provisions, revealed a fundamental lack of coherence in the information available to the public and the type of provisions available.

Research Associate at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Gail Ramster, who initiated The Great British Public Toilet Map added: ‘With no national database of public toilets, and information spread across more than 400 council websites, the task of finding a local loo can be a painstaking process.’

The latter part of the GBPT project, which involved lobbying local authorities to open up their data under the Freedom of Information Act, revealed a disparity in public toilet services across the UK, with eight councils shown to have no public toilets at all under their control.

Copeland Borough Council, Hambleton District Council, Bolsover District Council, Shropshire Council, Breckland Council, North-east Derbyshire District Council, North Dorset District Council and Tewkesbury Borough Council no longer provide any public toilets, leaving it up to town and parish councils to assume responsibility or see their toilets close. Councils that provided the most toilet information included The Highland Council in the Scottish Highlands, (122 toilets); Gwynedd Council in Wales (111); and the City of London (92).

The RCA research also underscored a serious lack of knowledge about toilets available to the public in supermarkets, libraries and shopping centres. For example, few people know about the Mayor of London’s Open London scheme, which allows people in the capital to use store toilets in Marks & Spencer, Tesco, John Lewis, Sainsbury's and Asda without the need to buy anything. There are 64 other local community toilet schemes, which in a similar way allow the public to use the toilets of participating local businesses. Some of these schemes, however, are also under threat.

Dan McLean, director at Crohn’s and Colitis UK, the charity that supports sufferers of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, said: ‘For people with a chronic bowel or bladder condition, not being able to find or access a public toilet can be a blight on life and sometimes stop people going out altogether.’ 

He added: ‘It is a disgrace that eight councils have no public toilets and many other towns are reducing services at an alarming speed. There are notable exceptions, such as Leeds City Council who have worked with our local group to make more sites available [through the ‘Can’t Wait Card’ toilet network scheme], but we need more authorities to follow the good examples and enable a terrific resource like The Great British Public Toilet Map to be packed with more helpful locations.’

The Great British Public Toilet Map was created using data from Freedom of Information requests, council websites, local government open data, National Rail Enquiries, Transport for London and the crowd-sourced mapping project OpenStreetMap.