Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
What will the public loo of the future look like?
The Victorians and Edwardians made public toilet provision a matter of civic pride; British public toilets were the best in the world. Local authorities would compete to create beautiful facilities which demonstrated the latest developments in sanitary engineering and architecture.
See four of Lucinda Lampton's favourites here (old and new) including the spectacular Wesley's chapel in London
Alas, today's public toilets are likely to be poorly maintained and poorly designed resulting in unsanitary facilities, anti-social behaviour and vandalism. The Edwardian toilets of this area and across the country such as those once opposite Duckett's Common are either locked up, re-assigned to other jobs or have been torn down. Their replacements are rarely places I'd like to take my child or send my grandmother to use.
This has a real effect on those people’s lives who are directly affected by the lack of public toilet provision: findings from Help the Aged's 2006 report "Nowhere to Go" show that people do not readily leave their homes without the reassurance that they will have access to public toilets.
This means that 12% of older people feel trapped in their own home and about 100,000 never go out. Disabled people and their carers, those with chronic health problems, and carers with young children also lack the freedom to leave their homes without adequate toilet facilities being available.
RIBA and BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme have unveiled a range of architectural designs to revive the tradition of the great British public toilet, a project organised as part of the RIBA’s 175th anniversary celebrations
See the designs here on the Today website
See four of Lucinda Lampton's favourites here (old and new) including the spectacular Wesley's chapel in London
Alas, today's public toilets are likely to be poorly maintained and poorly designed resulting in unsanitary facilities, anti-social behaviour and vandalism. The Edwardian toilets of this area and across the country such as those once opposite Duckett's Common are either locked up, re-assigned to other jobs or have been torn down. Their replacements are rarely places I'd like to take my child or send my grandmother to use.
This has a real effect on those people’s lives who are directly affected by the lack of public toilet provision: findings from Help the Aged's 2006 report "Nowhere to Go" show that people do not readily leave their homes without the reassurance that they will have access to public toilets.
This means that 12% of older people feel trapped in their own home and about 100,000 never go out. Disabled people and their carers, those with chronic health problems, and carers with young children also lack the freedom to leave their homes without adequate toilet facilities being available.
RIBA and BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme have unveiled a range of architectural designs to revive the tradition of the great British public toilet, a project organised as part of the RIBA’s 175th anniversary celebrations
See the designs here on the Today website
Tags for Forum Posts: public toilets, toilets
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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If you have Chron's you can join the NACC and get a special card which you should be able to show people in shops to be able to use their toilets urgently.
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Of course, we have Boris' intiative about getting shops/pubs/restaurants to open up (an idea that the Old Ale Emporium seems not to be too keen on judging by the large Toilets for Customer Use only signs on their window), not sure how that is going.
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Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
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I have to say, as a foreigner**, one of the things that really is awful in London, is the cleanliness of public WCs - it often makes me wonder if people act the same way at home..? I'm thinking here about restuarants or at stations, often sitting knee deep in toilet paper - Not a nice subject..
I noticed these public WCs this week, on a street not far from where the Athletics WM are currently being held..
Men get to pee free (left), but women have to pay (right) - Clean, but I don't think it is fair to women..
I also wrote something on my blog about public WCs... read here!
** more than 25 years of living outside the UK.
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I'm happy to pay a small amount for an attendant, clean loos and a ready supply of toilet paper.
In Japan, toilet paper is not supplied in public toilets, everyone carries a small packet with them. People stand in stations and shopping malls handing out free packets with adverts on. Also towels and hand driers are rare as people carry enourmous handkerchiefs to dry their hands upon, these can be very stylish and expensive (designer label, I have a Kenzo one somewhere). According to the article I linked to, cities in Japan have toilets every 500 yds? (well pretty often anyway).
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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I'm amazed that Boris the Classicist hasn't yet revived the ancient Romans' ideal of combining public loo-going with light and airy use of social space. My favourite is in the Hadrianic Baths of Leptis Magna in Libya, with its arc of marble-seated forica. Must have been somewhat bum-freezing in the winter months - but you really got to meet your neighbours close-up in this open-air Forum, surrounded by soaring columns of cipolin marble and a wonderful view of Mare Nostrum. No wonder Mussolini sent the Italians back to re-colonise Tripolitania.
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A similar thing occurs in rural china.
I was once making use of the facilities in a village, basic but very clean. Chinese loos are often just a channel separated by low walls.
A large number of ladies entered and also began to go but it was clearly a 'social occasion'. They were tickled to find a foreigner there, and tried very hard to include me in their chat. Hard not to get involved in such a 'vulnerable' position!
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Toilet Techniques.. I'm not sure we should go there.. lol
Visitors of mine, who are visiting for the first time, are rather surprised at the serving plate on German WCs - the British model is also widely available, but here in Berlin .. it is most common to have an 'inspection plate' to check out if everything is in order - before flushing away.. stops wet bottoms too! lol - Oh BTW, the trend here is to use rain water to flush toilets these days.. I know of a whole development where this is the case , with the water stored in a lake..
and then there is the US version.. filled to the brim with water.. yuk - don't look when you flush.. and what a waste of water - enough to bathe an elephant!
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and on the point of Victorian civic-pride..
I remember seeing a typical Victorian underground toilet facility on an island in the middle of the road in Chennai (Madras), India..
Stuck there in the middle of the Indian hustle and bustle, with cows passing-by, it would have been better placed in Wolverhampton.. and still had it's typical Victorian ventilation pole.. I wish I had taken a photo now.. - just checked on google maps.. it's still there - Rattan Bazaar Road, Chennai, India
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