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Five years on from the delayed Tokyo Olympics, one of its less obvious legacies is probably the highest-spec public toilets in the world. Seventeen architects turned conveniences across the city into what one, Kengo Kuma, called “must-see attractions” – including a design with clear-glass cubicles that become opaque when occupied. The German film director Wim Wenders took note. In 2023 they featured in his film, Perfect Days, about a cleaner.
A public realm in which humans and their needs are treated with so much dignity deserves to be celebrated. But new loos do not have to be architectural icons. The main thing is that there should be enough of them, and that they are maintained.
This week’s report from the Royal Society for Public Health reveals that in England this is far from being the case. Analysis based on 221 freedom of information requests to councils showed that the number of public toilets nationally has fallen by 14% in a decade. People in the other UK nations are, on average, better provided for. While there are 15,481 people per toilet in England, the figures for Scotland and Wales are 8,500 and 6,748. Like earlier research, the new data highlights big variations between places. Some cash-strapped local authorities have given up, creating lavatory “deserts”, or handed facilities over to parish councils or community groups.
As the charitable Royal Society points out, this deficit has obvious social and sanitary effects, and probably economic ones too. When older or disabled people, or women who are pregnant, do not feel confident about finding toilets, they may opt to stay at home. High streets, town centres and parks become unwelcoming environments.
Since some groups are affected more than others, this is an issue of equality as well as hygiene – as has been recognised for a long time. The Ladies Sanitary Association launched the first UK campaign for public women’s toilets after the first facilities were opened for men only in the 19th century. More recently, disability and parental rights campaigners have succeeded in increasing the provision of accessible toilets, spaces for changing nappies, and waste bins. For homeless people, who may have hostel beds to sleep in but nowhere to go during the day, the need is particularly acute. Conveniences run by private businesses and open only to their customers do not fill the gap.
Like the London Assembly, which last year backed a motion calling for public toilets to become a statutory duty of councils, the Royal Society wants the government to provide dedicated funding for new facilities. Given the state of local government finances and rising demand for services of various kinds, this is unlikely to happen soon. But at least toilets are at the top of the list of local public realm improvements that the Ministry of Housing says are suitable for Pride in Place regeneration spending. Planning rules could also be reviewed with a view to imposing new duties on developers – although it is the cost of maintaining loos that poses the biggest challenge, not reluctance to build them.
Using a lavatory is rarely the high point of anyone’s day, except perhaps in Tokyo. But not being able to find one can make ordinary outings stressful and difficult. As part of Pride in Place and other regeneration schemes, councils, local MPs and businesses should take pride in public loos.
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